A new online food-monitoring forum launched two weeks ago is set to overhaul the way European produce firms keep track of residues on their imported products.
René Rombouts, director of Agri Food Monitor, told freshinfo: “We offer in-depth residue monitoring for importers, currently only those sourcing from Spain, but we are looking to roll the system out to other supply countries as well, such as Egypt, South Africa and Costa Rica. Our tool can act as a one-stop shop for importers in countries like the Netherlands and the UK.
“We take the samples from the growers, ship them to the lab and then publish the results on our homepage for our clients to access, as well as emailing them the results. This is a transparent system with nothing to hide. We have contacts in northern Europe at the moment, but are hoping to meet some potential customers from the UK. We have about 10 clients now and launched the homepage two weeks ago. The company was established last year,” he said.
Agri Food Monitor launched a homepage to simplify existing procedures, as it was previously sending sampling results by fax, email and post. “This way, we eliminate any margin of error, and have also prepared the website for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) use, so the person who takes the sample in the field can upload results directly,” said Rombouts.
“We want to roll out this service to check all issues, including packing, HACCP, certification and traceability,” he added. “We believe that offering all these services on the one online forum would make us a very competitive business.”
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