NZ company wins FDA accolade in its New Era Food Safety challenge

The United States has found a new food traceability champion — in New Zealand.

New Zealand company Rfider is a winner in the ‘Food and Drug Administration (FDA) New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low or No Cost Food Traceability Challenge’. It is the only company outside of North America to get the FDA accolade. Rfider will now be promoted widely by the FDA as part of its ‘New Era Smarter Food Safety’ campaign.

Chief Executive John Pennington said the validation of Rfider as globally capable comes at a time when countries like the United States are encouraging firms to voluntarily adopt tracing technologies in all sectors producing human and animal foods.

The FDA says about 48 million people in the US (1 in 6) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalised and 3000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now it is taking a new approach to food safety, leveraging technology and other tools and approaches to create a safer and more digital, traceable food system. The goal is to “bend the curve of foodborne illness in the United States by reducing the number of illnesses”.

Rfider said it has developed a next-generation digital food traceability platform.

“Anyone in the supply chain network can be up and running in minutes, collecting critical event data in a highly efficient way, without the need for costly integration or app development — we’ve taken care of that,” Pennington said.

“Frontline staff at every point in a food’s supply chain, from growers through to logistics providers and distributors, can now scan products to access mobile first tools which simplify traceability and provenance information capture. Consumers can also scan the same codes to get real-time updates on an item’s safety, allowing them to make more informed purchase and usage decisions.

“Take our coffee customers, for example. We not only help them trace every lot of beans from harvest to consumer, but we also empower a significant number of process and supply chain efficiencies along the way. Transparency is becoming a major untapped source of value, which could be turned into a competitive advantage for brands that are built on integrity and sustainable practices.”

The FDA challenge comes off the back of its ‘New Era of Food Safety Blueprint’, which has been designed to enhance traceability, improve predictive analytics, respond more rapidly to outbreaks, address new business models, reduce contamination of food and foster the development of stronger food safety cultures.

Rfider has published a video on how its platform works, which can be viewed here.

Image: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Feng Yu