Food safety, traceability and sustainability blog

The First 100 Days of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety

The FDA hosted a webinar this week taking a retrospective look at the first 100 days of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, in addition to exploring how the initiative and blueprint will continue to build towards its key goals.

FDA Deputy Commissioner Frank Yiannas led the event, which brought visibility into the two-year roadmap for the agency, and underscored how progress that has already been made fits into the FDA’s broader strategic approach to food safety and technological advancements in the food system, since the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint was published.

Friday Round-up (7/31/20): FDA Webinar Announces Industry Pilot for Romaine Traceback

Every week FoodLogiQ will be aggregating the latest updates and resources for businesses navigating the changing food industry. Learn how the industry leaders are adapting to protect and feed consumers, while building resilience in the face of global crisis.

The FDA hosted a webinar this week to provide further detail on the latest work surrounding their Leafy Greens Action Plan. The hour-long event was designed to provide an update on key initiatives associated with the plan, including a new protocol for pre harvest agricultural water, as well as additional details on early pilot programs for leafy greens.

The FDA's Leafy Greens Action Plan

The FDA has published the 2020 Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan to combat foodborne illness and outbreaks caused by leafy greens.

The leafy green industry has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent years due to outbreaks like the 2018 romaine lettuce recall and the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak of 2019. Between 2009 and 2018 alone, the FDA stated they have identified “40 foodborne outbreaks of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infections in the U.S. with a confirmed or suspected link to leafy greens.” The impact of these outbreaks on both public health and food businesses has surfaced persistent vulnerabilities in the leafy greens industry’s food safety practices, which investigations found to be compounded by poor visibility into a complex supply chain.

A New Era of Smarter Food Safety Public Comments

The FDA’s public meeting held in October, 2019 highlighted the need to bring both public and private industry partners together. It will take tremendous collaboration to advance a New Era of Smarter Food Safety at scale. Public dialogue around food safety and traceability is essential to accomplish the goals of this new campaign, which will be people-led, FSMA-based, and technology-enabled. To contribute to public discourse, FoodLogiQ has formally submitted comments on the initiative, read the full version of our statement here.

A New Era of Smarter Food Safety Has Arrived

What we learned from the FDA’s public meeting on tech-enabled traceability and outbreak response, smarter tools, new business models and food safety culture.

The FDA held a public meeting yesterday kicking off their new campaign on A New Era of Smarter Food Safety. The all-day event was a referendum on the status of food safety across the industry, as well as a step towards consensus building on how to reimagine food safety at scale.