2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference, Blockchain

Beyond Supply Chain Trends: Blockchain, FSMA, Food Fraud, Audits and More

By Maria Fontanazza
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2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference, Blockchain

This year’s Food Safety Supply Chain conference delivered on providing FDA perspective and stakeholder insight about regulatory challenges, strategies and innovative technologies.

Rick Biros, Priya Rathnam, and Andrew Seaborn, 2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference
Priya Rathnam (middle) pictured with Rick Biros, president of Innovative Publishing (left) and Andrew Seaborn Supervisory Consumer Safety Officer, Division of Import Operations, ORA, FDA

How well do you know your suppliers? Can you trust your supplier’s suppliers? What kind of technology are you using to assess and ensure your suppliers are in compliance with regulatory requirements? These are common questions food companies must ask themselves on a regular basis. These and more were addressed at the 2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference, held last week at USP in Rockville, MD. Stay tuned for coverage of the event in upcoming articles. In the meantime, here are some top insights shared by FDA and others in industry.

“We’ve issued a limited number of warning letters (two), and they were due to really egregious issues. Where there were previously warning letters issued, we’re seeing a lot more ‘regulatory meetings’.” – Priya Rathnam, Supervisory Consumer Safety Officer, CFSAN, on FDA’s enforcement this fiscal year.

Criteria for FSMA auditors also includes the “soft skills”, aka ISO 19011, auditor personal attributes. –Josh Grauso, Senior Manager, Food Safety & Quality System Audits, UL

Fabien Robert, Nestle 2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference
Food fraud costs the industry up to $15 billion annually. – Fabien Robert, Ph.D., Director, Nestle Zone America

It’s concerning that so many QA managers (and other pros) today don’t know extent of risk assessment they need to carry out. – Chris Domenico, Safefood360, Territory Manager for North America

“Blockchain is more than a buzzword at the moment.”- Simon Batters, Vice President of Technology Solutions, Lloyd’s Register

2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference, Blockchain
A dynamic panel about blockchain, led by Darin Detwiler, Director: Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industry, Northeastern University featured (left to right) Kathy Wybourn, Director, Food Safety Solutions, DNV Business Assurance; Simon Batters,Vice President of Technology Solutions, Lloyd’s Register and Melanie Nuce, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Innovation, GS1 US.

Sometimes food safety doesn’t win; sometimes you need the business acumen to show that implementing supply chain efficiencies will create the win. – Gina Kramer, Executive Director, Savour Food Safety International

Bryan Cohn, 2018 Food Safety Supply Chain Conference
Building a robust & smart supply chain = reduce food miles, shrink carbon footprint, and save food waste to increase revenue/acre. – Bryan Cohn, Vice President of Operations, Seal the Seasons

The FSMA Sanitary transportation rule is not as straightforward as you think. We need more training. – Cathy Crawford, President, HACCP Consulting Group

About The Author

Maria Fontanazza, Food Safety Tech

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