The Future of Technology, Compliance and Food Safety

By Jason Dea
No Comments
February 3, 2016


• Categories: Compliance, FSMA, GFSI, RC - Compliance Management

There is no question that we are in the midst of a unique time period in history. Technology is continuing to innovate at an increasingly rapid rate, which has led to drastic changes that affect nearly every corner of day-to-day life. From the way we find information to our food choices, technology is influencing our lives in new ways.

The Rise of the Internet

Mary Meeker, the venture capitalist who was dubbed the “Queen of the Internet” more than 15 years ago, has described the current Internet age as a period of reimagining. At the heart of this reimagining has been the rapid growth, maturity and adoption of the Internet and Internet-enabled technologies.

In her most recent 2015 research, Meeker published some fascinating statistics. The number of people online has ballooned more 80 times, from a user base of a mere 35 million in 1995 to a staggering 2.8 billion users in less than 20 years. This figure translates into nearly 40% of the total global population.

It hasn’t just been the volume of usage that has evolved radically. The nature by which those billions of users are signing online has also changed. It’s hard to believe that the original iPhone was released in 2007, less than 10 years ago. In that time, the mobile Internet has gone from a novelty to a necessity for many of us in our daily lives. This smartphone adoption has fueled Internet use and has drastically increased the ease with which consumers can get online.

Reimagining Communication and Compliance

The result of our new “always-on,” globally connected world (to borrow Meeker’s term) is a complete reimagining of communication. Consumers expect a velocity and volume of communication that the world has never before experienced. We now take for granted that we can reach friends, family and acquaintances anywhere in the world—at any time—in an instant. This has also drastically changed our expectations of business relationships.

Consumers in an ever-connected world have an expectation of availability and transparency of information from the brands with which they interact and the establishments they frequent. What this means for businesses is that customers expect to have a degree of access to business data that they’ve never asked for previously.

A tangible side effect of this desire for data transparency can be seen within the regulatory environment that organizations operate. Governments and regulatory bodies have increased their expectations of data access and availability over time, resulting in more stringent regulations across the board.

Research from Enhesa shows that the regulatory growth rate is nearly as staggering as Internet growth rates. According to the firm’s research, from 2007–2014 regulatory increases by region were as follows:

• North America: +146%
• Europe: +206%
• Asia: +104%

Impact on Food Safety: Consumer Engagement and Regulatory Growth

One particular area of regulatory growth has occurred within the food and beverage sector. Arguably no product category has a more direct impact on consumers than food, as it literally fuels us each day. It’s no wonder that in an environment of increasing regulations and more empowered consumers that food quality and food safety are under increased scrutiny.

In today’s environment, it becomes much more challenging to brush aside product recalls and food safety incidents or bury these stories in specialized media. The latest news is not just a fleeting negative headline. In a worst-case scenario these incidents are viral, voracious and more shareable than ever before. From Listeria outbreaks to contaminated meat to questionable farming practices—when fueled by the Internet, the negative branding impact of these stories can be staggering. Consumers are paying attention and engaging with these stories—for example, during a Listeria or Salmonella outbreak, online searches for these terms significantly rise.

The rise of hyper-aware consumers has had a measurable impact. As a result, governments have been quick to respond and have beefed up existing regulations for the food and beverage sector via FSMA and GFSI.

Pressure to Track Food Safety Data

Designed to ensure the safety of the food supply for consumers, new regulations are increasing pressure on brands and producers to be able to not only provide safe products, but to also be able to validate, quantify and track that safety with their data. The objective of this transparency is an admirable one: To encourage producers to get ahead of these potential risks before they arise. Yet it presents numerous new challenges for the sector.

Today the big question at hand for food and beverage brands, producers, processors, distributors and others in the supply chain is how to service this increasing demand for data. Thankfully, this demand has fueled an equally tremendous pace of innovation in the space.

Data has never been easier to capture or manage, and being able to make smart decisions based on the best data available is the new goal. RFID, barcodes and smartphones are allowing organizations to capture a breadth of data regarding their operations, and this technology is enabling them to do it faster and more easily than ever. Likewise, what organizations are able to accomplish with that data has also evolved.

Software providers leveraging big data, web integration and analysis tools now make it possible for food producers to go beyond simply tracking past scores. Taking advantage of today’s technology, companies can make proactive and predictive decisions based on many streams of business data, all through centralized platforms. For forward-thinking brands, this provides an unprecedented ability to account for previous unknowns in their process and supply chains (an uncertainty that can be an especially big for those leveraging a global network of suppliers).

Developing a Data Strategy

Looking into the future, the technology innovations on the horizon hold the potential to inspire more of the same data-driven transparency. Take the next trillion-dollar technology market—the Internet of Things (IoT)—as an example. IoT and IoT proponents believe that adding Internet connectivity to formerly “dumb” devices and tools will be the key to unlocking insights that will lead to the next stage in business efficiency. In the context of compliance and food quality and safety, an observable connection can be drawn. More data from an increasingly varied set of sources presents an enticing future that many organizations are beginning to position themselves for in order to capitalize on this data when the time comes.

So what’s the first step?

Most organizations can begin by making sense of their current state of data. The market has already begun to establish leaders in the data management platform space. From a research perspective that eases much of the burden. Analyst firms like Gartner and Verdantix are beginning to identify innovative market leaders and their capabilities in various analytical methodologies. For organizations that haven’t yet started to aggregate these streams of information that unlock strategic data-driven decisions, this is where foundational investments should be made. These investments include not only those in technology and tools, but also investments in supporting processes and people.

Likewise, for organizations that still rely on data from ERP platforms and technologies, now is the time to revisit data strategy. We’re in the midst of tremendous innovation in the cloud and SaaS space. While many companies have become accustomed to traditional, somewhat cumbersome systems, there are great benefits to be unlocked from switching to a solution that is more agile and easier to manage.

Whatever happens, none of this is going away. Regulatory scrutiny and increasingly demanding consumers are here to stay. Access, transparency and demand for data will not slow down, and will most likely only continue to accelerate. For businesses in the food and beverage sector, this presents as much of an opportunity as it does a challenge.