The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to release a set of proposed rules that would require facilities that make or handle food for humans and animals to put measures in place to help prevent food-borne illness. Manufacturers will be required to adopt standards for monitoring their preventive measures to ensure they are working, and they will be have to keep records of that monitoring.
For those companies managing supply chains for food and beverage firms, there are concerns about tracking food for food safety, and also for food freshness and time to market.
For most consumers, these actions can’t come too soon. Unofficial data reported from one laboratory that regularly tests for E. coli alone suggests that as many as 20,000 cases occur in the US annually. This problem is not limited to the US, either.
Enter Internet technology, which is helping to contribute to the FDA’s program in the folloing ways:
Food contamination and lot tracking. A combination of GPS and Internet communications is being developed to track end-to-end food shipments -- from the farmer’s field to delivery in a grocery store. One goal is earlier detection and identification of possible sources of food contamination, which will facilitate aggressive food safety intervention.
Cold storage and trucking monitoring for freshness. A combination of both wireless and Internet communications is being teamed with new ruggedized mobile devices to improve the monitoring of foods for freshness in cold storage. “From the device standpoint, we know that plastic gets brittle in cold environments,” says Mike Wills, vice president of sales for Psion Inc. (London: PON), a ruggedized handheld device manufacturer. “New breakthroughs in resins, glass, and lightweight materials like magnesium have moved us to the point where we can deliver mobile devices that measure the effectiveness of food cold storage environments in warehouses and distribution centers.”
Logistics companies must also consider cold storage on the trucks that transport perishable goods to market. Improved sensors and IP-enabled monitoring not only check the temperature of trucks using cold storage, but also the moisture content in food being transported. Being able to route this information rapidly over IP to supply chain managers enables nimble decision-making on which goods distributors should get to market fastest, based upon food freshness indicators.
Redistribution based on changing market demands. Intent on satisfying customer demands and also on limiting losses from spoilage, food retailers now monitor truck routes over IP and assess these routes against very fluid market demands. If a truck carrying California lettuce is enroute to Washington, D.C., and there is a sudden upturn in demand in Atlanta, the truck can be immediately rerouted to Atlanta. This addresses fluid customer demand, reduces shipping and expediting costs, and ensures that food inventory is consumed as quickly as possible.
The FDA project is one of several ongoing efforts to use technology to boost food safety and freshness worldwide. As early as 2008, an Internet of Things roadmap for the food and beverage industry through 2020 was introduced in Europe. Similar food safety and contamination initiatives are being pursued in China.
These projects all aim to improve the ability of food supply chains to deliver quality goods. For providers and consumers, that’s tasty news indeed.
It's good and interesting to see how amazingly fields ( like food,health etc) are entering into the world of digitalization,improving their working standards and making themselves efficient and precise. And as this evolution goes on and on, it will soon become mandatory for all and sundry to educate themselves in the field of IT or else they will lag behind, even if they belong to the simplest profession of fruit selling.
I'm not saying government should be bigger or even that the FDA does a good job, or would do one if its food standards were extended. But just as rosy is the theory that the general public is considered a stakeholder by big business. History shows over and over (asbestos firms, the Pinto debacle, the cigarette companies) that companies act for their own gain and often must be mandated to change that stance.
It's also worth clicking through the link Mary provided to see the extent to which the food industry is involved in developing these regulations. See also what it says about medium to small companies.
When I read the title of Mary's blog, my initial reaction was: hmmm I hope my lettuce won't be sending me tweets that it is not worth eating again! If what Mary described is the 'Internet of Things' version for the food industry, then I am totally on board. The other version of "Internet of Things" that you referenced, I have decided to put it on the shelf for now.
If the companies are already doing everything necessary to ensure that the supply chain is monitored, complying with the FDA rules shouldn't be too onerous.
"Must beg to differ with you here, Chris. Companies don't feel an obligation to the public; they feel an obligation to their stakeholders."
Is not the general public a stakeholder to any company? Even though it can be argue that a company's primary objective is to its shareholders, that duty can't be compromise by infringing on the core values of its stakeholders.
Chris made an excellent observation. No one is arguing against government setting higher standards of safety when it comes to the food industry. Chris argument was that focusing those standards on the macro level may not be sufficient strategy. So many 'evil' things can happen at the macro level with big companies potentially been left of the hook due to their lobbying power. As a result the expected effects of such regulations are not been realized at the micro level wherein as Chris noted smaller companies are just living by their own standards with little oversight.
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The average yearly tuition cost for brick-and-mortar colleges and universities in the US today is more than $20,000, an expense that has increased 1,120 percent since 1978. By comparison, students of all ages can often earn an online education for one fourth of this annual cost -- and more businesses are starting to acknowledge online degrees.
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The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling of customer behavior to convert more site visitors into leads, says Brian Baron, director of business analytics, in an interview at the Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
Recently, Amazon was recognized for its customer satisfaction excellence. It has made no secret that being customer-centric is a primary goal. This should be the goal of every e-tailer that wants to build market share.
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Steve and Nicole are at HCL's Unstructure conference at Disneyworld where Malcolm Gladwell and his hair gave a fascinating keynote on the advantages of being an "outsider."
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While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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