Food Safety Technologies and Compliance

Food Safety Technologies and Compliance

Food safety technologies have come to play an increasingly critical role in securing a safe and reliable global supply chain. Food safety regulations worldwide have become both more stringent and more detailed in their requirements.  The end result is that in many respects, national and regional regulatory systems, reinforced by international standards, are driving the technologies themselves.  For instance, China has just passed 154 amendments to the Basic Food Safety Law which, itself, had 104 provisions, many of which introduce compliance standards and enforcement measures.  FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act), considered in the forefront of model national regulatory systems, focuses on prevention; inspections; compliance and response; imports; and enhanced partnerships.  Looking at preventative controls alone, FSMA calls for the introduction of HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) systems.  This means food manufacturing plants need to put in place process, allergen, and sanitation controls plus a monitoring system and recall plan.  To ensure reliability of the system in place, the food industry must have access to verification instrumentation.  Looking  at FSVP (Foreign Supplier Verification Program) under FSMA, equivalency is the norm so that foreign suppliers must be able to conduct science-based verification that their product imported, in this case to the US, is safe.

The list goes on.  With international standards intended as the norm, other national systems such as the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed under EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) is designed to secure compliance with European standards, long considered among the toughest in the world.  The implementation of all such systems is dependent on appropriate technologies.  We have, thus, witnessed a synchronization between regulatory requirements and the introduction of new food safety technologies.  Together, they form the risk mitigation architecture for food safety in the global supply chain.  The lead chapter in GFSF’s White Paper issued on May 1, co-authored by Daniel Unruh, Justin Kastner and Abbey Nutsch from Kansas State University, notes that the 1996 HACCP rule led to steam pasteurization prevention  and that a recent EU food labelling regulation resulted in the introduction of new “use-by date”  modelling software systems.  Lauryn Bailey and Laura Baker of SCIEX write in the same GFSF publication, “Modern food and beverage testing has advanced into a rigorous practice carried out on precision, state-of-the-art instruments that supply critical information about contaminant levels in all types of food and drink – from farm-fresh produce to factory-prepared foods.”

In conjunction with the evolving global structure of the food and feed industries, pathogen controls face new challenges.  Pathogens, of course, know no territorial borders. Prevention norms and controlling outbreaks and contagions require an increasing level of sophistication in detection.  Technology, once again, has risen to the occasion.  PCR (polymerase chain reaction) kits shorten the detection period and reduce the cost of lab reviews under ELISA (enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay) methods which may require up to a week for conclusive results.

This year’s annual Beijing Summit, June 13-14, hosted by the Global Food Safety Forum (GFSF), centers on the role of technology in regulatory compliance and the breakthrough technologies that are in place to meet new challenges.  On the 14^th, there will be an an e-course demonstration  and a second session on new insurance products for food safety liability and recall contamination directed to Chinese suppliers and international buyers.

Eric Wu, Director of Global Food Safety Forum, pointed out that this year’s Summit goes beyond the standard conference.  “We’ve worked to create a learning environment that addresses the integral link between food safety regulation and technology developments to secure a more reliable food supply chain for our future.”  For further information, registration and sponsorships, please click on the GFSF conference website: http://asansbury.wix.com/conference-2015 as well as the GFSF site: http://www.globalfoodsafetyforum.org . You are also invited to contact Eric Wu at ericwu@gicgroup.com or Rick Gilmore at rickgilmore@gicgroup.com.