COVID-19 has reset the bar for food chains. Consumer confidence in the safety of our food chains is damaged, both in terms of those buying products and those manufacturing the products (think meat). The US FDA has gone all in on their New Era of Smarter Food Safety plan, which pushes technological advances and requires significant traceability reporting across 16 categories of fresh foods. Many countries are using this FDA work as a template for their own regulatory bodies, including Australia and the EU. Persequor is co-leading a new effort at USC to drive technology and food safety.

Episode Notes:

Persequor overview 3:14.
How the food supply chain has been disrupted 3:51.
Job losses and gains 5:10.
Bullwhip effect 5:58.
Food regulation 6:52.
Uniform global set of standards for tracking and tracing 10:49.
Consumer confidence in food safety impacted by education on risks 13:19.
Pork production in Europe and how it differs from US 15:15.
USC consortium for food safety 17:09.
Restoring consumer confidence in Europe 18:01.
Food manufacturing plant changes to adapt to COVID, most significantly impacted by regulation 22:26.
FDA Smarter Food Safety Plan for 16 food categories 23:42.
Technological advances from FDA plan, slow in food supply chain 24:58.
Traceability in food safety planning 28:07.
Sharing data across supply chain 30:11.
EU “Farm to Fork” framework adopted from FDA 32:06.
Australia adopting FDA framework 33:01.
GS1 and EPCIS traceability 34:25.
UN Sustainable Development goals, food waste 35:06.
Developing countries rapidly adopting digital 38:41.
Avoiding recalls with tracking and tracing 39:39.
Legacy vs. new SCM tools 41:50.
Importance of change management and leadership in adopting solutions 44:07.
Five ‘Moonshots’ bit.ly/3bGcA22 (p72) for improving supply chains in a post-COVID world 46:33.