What Might Happen If You Miss a Food Safety Risk?

Preventing food safety problems requires prioritization of potential ingredient and supply chain hazards and sufficient staff time to review and react to vulnerabilities.

At FoodChain ID, we leverage our unique risk assessment technology, combined with staff food safety experts and our well-known service support, to save our customers time and reduce their food safety risk. Our unique technologies include:

The Food Fraud Database — Detection and mitigation of economically motivated adulteration worldwide with more than 13,500 global records supporting GFSI- required vulnerability assessments.

HorizonScan^™ — Daily, global supply chain monitoring and analysis for ingredient risk covering more than 600 commodities and over 180 countries of origin.

Dynamic Risk Assessment- Sentinel — Customized, automated daily risk scores to identify and prioritize a company’s own food safety risks, with company dashboard updated continually with HorizonScan alerts.

Karen Everstine, Ph.D., Technical Director of Food Safety Solutions at FoodChain ID, said, “FoodChain ID is a unique service provider in the food industry because we offer cutting-edge supply chain risk assessment tools for food safety hazards and vulnerabilities, in addition to a range of certification and audit services.” Everstine was integral to the development of the Food Fraud Database and continues to serve as technical lead and product manager. She has extensive food protection experience in research-based and applied roles in government, academic and non-profit organizations.

Data from HorizonScan in 2021 showed microbiological hazards, pesticide residues and undeclared allergens accounted for the majority of hazards reported. Supply chain food safety risks evolve and change over time based on regulatory priorities, manufacturing practices, consumer priorities and other factors.

In the first three quarters of 2021, seafood, meats, dairy, honey and herbs/spices figured prominently in Food Fraud Database fraud reports. Botanicals, supplements and alcoholic beverages also had high reports of fraud. Recent pressures on food ingredient supply chains have increased the vulnerability to fraud.

The supply chain pressures originated from increased consumer demands for particular products combined with supply disruptions and transportation challenges. Raw material shortages have prompted adjustments in suppliers and source countries and may have increased the reliance on new suppliers and/or brokers. As supply chains continue to be affected by the COVID pandemic, food safety professionals should pay particular attention to incoming raw materials from new sources.

FoodChain ID can provide the technologies, staff experts and service support to reduce food safety risk. FoodChain ID offers a consulting service for Food Fraud Database subscribers to build ingredient groups and customize the dashboard based on a company’s ingredients. Our mission is to keep the food supply chain safe, compliant and transparent, serving more than 30,000 clients in 100-plus countries.