Food Technologists Promote Food Traceability To Protect Populations From Foodborne Illness

The Institute of Food Technologists has published a supplement to the Journal of Food Science that is designed to “catalyze and jump start” a multi-disciplinary approach to improving food traceability as a way to protect people from foodborne pathogen. The traceability problem has become acute now that the food supply chain contains hundreds of ingredients from around the globe. The IFT supplement features peer-reviewed articles on three Traceability Research Summits where dozens of experts from the food and technology industries discussed the meaning of traceability, how to achieve it pragmatically, and why it is important. Such a collaboration is necessary to protect the public from foodborne illness outbreaks and recalls. To that end, governments are already implementing new regulations that focus on food traceability.