The Next Frontier: Technology's Role In Food Safety And Compliance

By Greg Sommerville, Director of Supply Integrity, McCormick Global Ingredients Limited

Technology should be fully integrated into food facilities to meet consumer, regulator, and employee needs.

Technology is solidly embedded in our everyday lives and we become further connected to it every day. In fact, the average family owns 7.4 connected devices and, as our houses themselves get smarter, this will increase; by 2020 there will be 26 billion devices connected.

Technology is also becoming smarter and cheaper. Today’s smartphone provides a superior communication tool than the President of the United States had access to just 25 years ago and provides access to more data than he had access to just 10 years ago. The first mobile phone cost nearly $4,000; imagine the adoption if that remained the case! Technology is in our pockets, wallets, on our wrists, is used daily, and will soon be embedded under our skin.

Yet, the food industry has been slow on the uptake. In an ever-increasing environment of cheaper, smarter, easier-to-use, cloud-based technologies, many facilities continue to use pen and paper for recordkeeping, critical control point monitoring, and other key requirements. The food business understands that paper records are far from reliable in both the collection and verification of information and have taken the first step towards embracing technology, but is far behind in total adoption of these advancements.