The United Fresh Produce Association has outlined its backing for two new pilot programmes from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that have been drawn up to enhance the ability to track and trace those products responsible for foodborne illness outbreaks.
The pilots, to be carried out by the Institute for Food Technologists (IFT), will explore and demonstrate methods for rapid and effective tracking and tracing of food, including types of data that are useful for tracing, ways to connect the supply chain and how quickly data can be made available to the FDA.
'Our industry has been devoted, since the genesis of the Produce Traceability Initiative in 2008, to achieving reliable whole-chain traceability for fresh fruits and vegetables,' said Dab Vaché, United Fresh president of supply chain management. 'FDA's announcement of these pilot programmes is an encouraging validation of the hard work we've invested to date on this effort, and we enthusiastically support both FDA and IFT in this effort.
'We have heard repeatedly from leaders at FDA, including deputy commissioner for foods Mike Taylor, that the produce industry knows best how to move the needle on traceability, and we are committed to making that insight available to IFT,' he added. 'We look forward to providing the resources and assistance of the entire industry as the pilots move forward, and given the groundbreaking progress the industry has made thus far through the Produce Traceability Initiative, we hope that we can share what we've accomplished and learned, cut down on any potential duplication of efforts, and help the pilots be as successful as possible.'
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