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PHOENIX – You may remember something about the new era of smarter food safety. You’d think it was longer than it was, but Frank Yiannas of the FDA only shared his idea for future food safety a year ago.
The problem is, what you’ve heard since didn’t tell you much about this “New Era”.
Well, today at the International Food Protection Association (IAFP) meeting, more details were filled in so that attendees at least have an understanding of what is really going on.
The New Era is the “FDA’s new approach to food safety, using technology and other tools to create a safer and more digital traceable food system”.
Okay, but what does that mean?
The IAFP offered some experts to answer that question in a super-chilled ballroom at the Phoenix Convention Center. These included Nathan Anderson and Andrew Kennedy from the FDA campus in Silver Springs, MD, along with Aaron Asmus from Hormel Foods in Austin, MN, Derrick Bautista from Del Monte Foods in Walnut Creek, CA, and Pamela Wilger from Cargill Inc. from Wayzata, MN.
As it turns out, the FDA’s announcement a year ago wasn’t like a rollout of a corporate campaign that’s happening in a fixed order. The insider’s panel of several of America’s largest food companies admitted that the “New Era” was a “bootstrap” operation in its first year. Part of that was, of course, down to the FDA’s focus on the pandemic and the other was the undefined purpose of the project
And after that year, the New Era could be better positioned than expected by the FDA, according to Anderson.
But what the New Era is all about has been made clear. The FDA wants the companies it regulates to be digitized. And companies like Hormel, Del Monte, and Cargill were there to show how much they love to do this, but to spread a cautionary story about how difficult and how long it will take.
Food manufacturers produce tons of paperwork. Until it is replaced by digital solutions, all of this paper will slow the FDA’s step into the future, for example through easy traceability.
As reported Tuesday, large food companies are currently working on the transition, but the transition from paper systems to digital systems could take five to ten years.
When the FDA announced this a year ago, it predicted New Era Blueprint would take “more than the next decade to usher in the new era of smarter food safety”. It claimed its goals were “achievable” to improve traceability, improve predictive analytics, respond more quickly to outbreaks, address new business models, reduce food contamination and encourage the development of stronger food safety cultures.
Early, The FDA said the COVID-19 pandemic had “accelerated the need for actions called for in the blueprint, especially during times of crisis”.
For the equivalent portion of the FDA budget, “bootstrapping” in the first year that includes the New Era resulted in the commissioner submitting a budget of $ 52 million, up $ 44 million, according to Anderson is. “This increase in the budget is a real vote of confidence,” he said.
However, it was unclear whether the FDA can help private companies adapt their new systems with their costs to the new era. And since food safety functions require the help of information technology and even cybersecurity personnel, those costs will only increase. “We need to hire IT staff to be part of the food safety team,” said Wilger of Cargill.
New attention is being paid to so-called “cyber crime”, where it was possible to actually harm people, for example by poisoning water systems or adulterating food. Food defense against so-called. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 calls for “deliberate falsification”. However, more security almost always means that IT projects take up more time, according to today’s discussion participants.
The draft for the new era of smarter food safety was announced in July 2020. In FDA Voices, Janet Woodcock, MD, acting commissioner for Food and Medicines and Yiannas, assistant commissioner for food policy and response provided details.
Here are the key elements for 2021.
Core element 1: Tech-supported traceability
- Advance the fundamentals of food traceability as the FDA moves from a proposed to a definitive food traceability rule as required in FSMA Section 204.
- Work with international regulatory partners to create a common global, harmonized language for food traceability based on harmonized data elements and standards.
- Organize a “Low- or No-Cost Food Traceability Challenge” to incentivize the development of technology-enabled solutions for food manufacturers of all sizes.
- Development and pilot prototype so that the FDA can obtain traceability data in digital form that can be used to create outbreak investigation diagrams and improve outbreak response.
Core element 2: Smarter tools and approaches for disease outbreak prevention and response
- The full operational phase of an artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) pilot project for seafood to see if AI can improve our ability to quickly and efficiently identify products that could pose a public health hazard.
- Enter into domestic mutual trust agreements with at least three states to further strengthen the state food safety net.
- Initiate a feasibility study on the use of remote official assessments as a supplement to compliance oversight for food companies for humans and animals.
- Run the pilot to evaluate third-party food safety standards to see if they are in line with specific FDA food safety requirements.
Core element 3: New business models and retail modernization
- Continue to work with national retail regulators and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support FDA efforts to improve the safety of foods sold in traditional retail stores.
- Convening a public summit on new business models in 2021 with food e-commerce stakeholders to identify future actions to address potential food safety vulnerabilities.
Core element 4: Food safety culture
- Develop and implement in-house training for FDA inspection personnel to introduce them to the behavioral and organizational principles that make up the food safety culture. Evaluate the opportunity to offer this training to government supervisory inspectors.
- Conduct a literature review of challenges, barriers, and opportunities to influence attitudes and behaviors related to desired food safety practices.
- In partnership with the Partnership for Food Safety Education, help modernize consumer education materials to include delivery through new tech media and communications on safe home-delivered food.
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