The food we eatFDA to host traceability meeting
Published 10 November 2009
FDA, USDA to hold a day-long conference to discuss the core elements of product tracing systems, gaps in current product tracing systems, and mechanisms to enhance product tracing systems for food in an effort to increase the speed and accuracy of traceback investigations and trace forward operations
Next month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will provide a venue to discuss the gaps in current food product tracing systems and mechanisms by which to enhance systems. The FDA announced in a teleconference last week that it will hold a public meeting in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Information Service (FSIS) in early December to address traceability systems for all foods, including fruits and vegetables.
The meeting will provide a forum to discuss the core elements of product tracing systems, gaps in current product tracing systems, and mechanisms to enhance product tracing systems for food in an effort to increase the speed and accuracy of traceback investigations and trace forward operations.
Gill McShane writes that the FDA and FSIS also intend the meeting to improve the ability of FDA and FSIS to use the information in such systems to identify the source of contamination during outbreaks of food-borne illness, and to improve the ability of all persons in the supply chain more quickly to identify food that is (or potentially is) contaminated and remove it from the market during trace forward operations.
This discussion will help FDA and FSIS determine what short and long-term steps the two agencies should take to enhance the current tracing system.
“This public meeting provides an opportunity for FDA to collaborate more closely with FSIS as well as with members of the food industry, many of whom have been making important innovations in food safety practices and technology, and all of whom bear primary responsibility for producing and marketing safe food,” said Michael R. Taylor, senior adviser to FDA’s commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD.
The United Fresh Produce Association will be present to testify at the two-day meeting and will highlight the progress made by the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) toward achieving whole-chain traceability for fresh produce, the organization said in a press release. “United Fresh will coordinate with other PTI stakeholders in order to provide FDA with a comprehensive overview of the produce industry’s efforts on traceability,” the group explained.
The meeting will take place on 9-10 December from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Jefferson Auditorium of the USDA’s South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, NW in Washington, D.C.
