April 19, 2009
Food Safety and Traceability: A Global Concern
By
Laurie
Sullivan
People are concerned about food safety. Rightly so, according to ChainLink Research CEO Ann Grackin. Contaminated food contributed to thousands of deaths and illness throughout the world in the past 12 months.
Historic approaches to safety represent a series of disjointed attempts at regulation, inspection, incident management and expensive technology pilots, she said.
ChainLink Research has launched an in-depth study on food traceability. The report is scheduled for release this summer, with findings presented at the Food Traceability Summit in October.
The abstract for the study follows:
The chain of safety is islands of disjointed business processes, information, people and technologies. Current suggestions from the commercial market place all propose solutions such as lab/testing, auto/id and software; but all these components of the solutions merely deal with their portion of the elephant. And comparable solutions for pharmaceuticals are only partially appropriate for the food chain.
On the policy and government front, the U.S, President Obama has stated, the nation's food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and overdue for an overhaul. In addition, PRC Premier Wen Jiabao stated, " The Chinese government attaches great importance to food safety because it is not only in the interest of the Chinese but also people in the world,"".
President Obama will support leadership and budget for solutions, "Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has", he stated, recommending a complete overhaul of the FDA.
The Chinese government has mandated a complete revision of their food and pharmaceutical safety regulations. The DHS has stepped up inspection at the US/Mexican borders. However, legislating change without a real understanding of the implications to the various players could create real upheavals in the industry—business opportunities for some, while disabling others, cutting them out of the distribution chain and market for their products.
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April 15, 2009
Tweeting Touchatag On Twitter
By
Laurie
Sullivan
Raise your hand if you tweet on Twitter. For those who don't know the microblogging site, allow me to introduce you.
It appears that Richard Ting, ECD, mobile and emerging platforms at digital ad agency R/GA, has been testing Alcatel-Lucent's touchatag on Twitter. Creators of touchaTag, an online RFID service, enables developers and Internet-savvy customers to create one-touch application that connect to the Web.
In this case, the items are connected to Twitter. When first announced in late 2008, Alcatel-Lucent's tag and reader targeted consumers through business applications. Now the company has sharpened its focus and relaunched with the ability to read 2D bar codes, also known as QR codes.
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April 02, 2009
Track, Trace Food Recalls
By
Laurie
Sullivan
The salmonella outbreak in peanut butter sickened 691 people and may have contributed to the deaths of nine. Now we are looking at contaminated pistachios.
Setton has voluntarily recalled about 2 million pounds of roasted in-shell and shelled pistachios. No illnesses have been reported.
While the automatic identification industry has taken notice, systems are not moving into place fast enough.
How many food items need to sicken the American people before companies do something to either prevent outbreaks or puts checks and balances in place to assure product safety?
If better technology can identify salmonella, then why can't similiar technology track and trace items that need to be recalled?
Aside from nuts, mayonnaise sold in Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana was voluntarily recalled by the Kroger supermarket chain on Wednesday.
You can find a list of recalled products here.
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