Using Real-Time Data To Exceed FSMA Guidelines
By Melissa Lind, contributing writer
New legislation is requiring food industry participants to shift from reacting to an emergency to a proactively preventing them. The key to ensuring that you meet regulations, maintain customer loyalty, and minimize damage from a foodborne illness or contamination event can depend upon how your company evaluates its data.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) calls for manufacturers to implement traceability and tracking measures and shift the focus from reaction to adversity to one of preventing it. The starting point for compliance with regulations is a preventative controls plan which identifies potential hazards and specifies, in writing, what and how controls will be measured, and what the facilities response to deviations will be.
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Like many industries, the food sector is just now learning to deal with “big data.” The amount of data being collected has grown exponentially and the big struggle is in how to manage it. Though regulations require that routine monitoring and documentation must be done, it isn’t enough to collect and store the data. In order to protect the public’s safety and meet all of the requirements, data must be converted into useable information. Food industry participants must be able to track and trace the food supply from harvest to customer, but also to track other points of importance, such as laboratory testing for foodborne pathogens.
Technology is developing at light speed and one option for managing big data in the food industry is a laboratory information management system (LIMS). Like similar systems used in other industries, LIMS can integrate data points coming from different sources, such as thermo tracking and laboratory results. It then puts this data into a real-time picture and helps meet the prevention controls plan.
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Most foodborne illnesses actually go unreported, but the FDA has estimated that one in every six Americans is likely affected by a foodborne illness every year. Recent events, such as the outbreak of Listeria in Denmark, which resulted in the deaths of 12 people, remind us that contamination events can be deadly and the middle of a crisis is not the time to find out your system is failing. Even with careful prevention programs, unfortunate events are nearly inevitable, but the ability to respond to a crisis immediately can actually save lives.
Much of the focus has been in the need to meet regulations, with a secondary focus on greater efficiency and continued revenue ensured by maintaining customer loyalty. However, even a small recall is expensive. Integrated data, with real-time visibility, in a form that can be used to make decisions can help to enact a speedy response, increase efficiency, and protect the safety of the public.