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Safety is one of the top market challenges in the food industry. Food recalls are happening with greater frequency, which is alarming for public health, and finds food-related companies battling more consumer lawsuits in the courtroom. In fact, there are 1.3 recalls in the United States every day.

The fact is, food risks are escalating as the market evolves. One in six Americans—48 million people—fall ill every year due to food contamination, and 125,000 children die of foodborne illness.

In the United States, a person who is injured as a result of a foodborne illness may bring a civil cause of action against another by claiming that the other individual is legally liable for the harm caused by the foodborne illness.

Many different parties can actually be liable, including restaurant employees and personnel (servers, waiters, cooks, and others), food distributors, shippers of food products and suppliers of ingredients for foods. In other words, everyone along the food supply chain which encompasses farms, processors, distributors, restaurants, groceries and convenience stores.

Food poisoning lawsuits generally fall under the category of defective product liability claims: the idea being that you have been sold a defective product (food) that injured (poisoned) you. The most common legal theories in these cases include strict product liability, negligence and breach of warranties. Often class action suits arise from a specific outbreak of food borne illness. In food poisoning cases, consumers need to trace the contamination to its source, and the food industry is now more focused on transparency and traceability as a result.

As food safety matters become more public, food handlers are challenged to implement comprehensive food safety solutions across the food supply chain that provide traceability, transparency and clear chain of custody. While government agencies are working to implement standards for food safety, there are currently no federal regulations mandating a uniform set of standards, and the industry is largely voluntarily regulating. But the FDA is not sitting on the sidelines. In January 2019, the FDA implemented a voluntary Leafy Green Provenance Labeling initiative that identifies harvest location, pick date and lot numbers to enable quick recalls as necessary.

The GS1, a global standards organization with worldwide membership, has developed standards that offer the food, and other, industries a common language to identify, capture and share supply chain data—ensuring that important information is accessible, accurate and easy to understand. They administer Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), which captures item data through barcode and RFID labelling. RFID provides a unique digital identity so every entity that “touches” a food item can share and document data at every point along the food supply chain with virtually 100% accuracy.

The good news is that technology is being developed and deployed across the supply chain in response to safety concerns. The technology focuses on automation and traceability methods such as blockchain, hardware, software, RFID labelling and IoT sensors. The track and trace technology harnesses shared data to provide transparency on the chain of custody of food items, and immediate traceability to ensure quick recalls.

Following the trail of a bag of lettuce tagged with an RFID label that includes its GTIN demonstrates how the food industry is able to comply with the voluntary standards offered by the FDA and other industry groups. It is important to note that processes that can be automated mean less human handling, a known source of foodborne illnesses.

Start at the source where the grower can apply a serialized industry standard label to the lettuce which contains its GTIN, which provides lot, date and producer location. Moving on to the processor, when the item is “transformed” into a new, processed item, such as a prepared salad, it receives a new product ID with a processed date. In the commercial kitchen, all previous serialized data is scanned and read, and the item is placed in a physical inventory, optimized for order placement and rotation. Here, the bag of lettuce is assigned a new item ID, as well as a prep and use-by date.

All of the information that is contained on the labels offers access to food provenance, clear expiry data and ability to recall products at any point along the supply chain. The advantage of RFID labels is that data—in industry standard format—can be used to ensure food safety all along the supply chain, stored in the cloud or utilizing blockchain. Additional data is captured through IoT sensors such as those placed in refrigerators that must maintain a specified temperature to ensure freshness.

Food safety all comes down to compliance with industry standards, effective FDA, government and industry regulation and most importantly, effective deployment of technology. The ability to implement solutions that leverage advances in hardware, software, RFID, IoT, the cloud and blockchain will make the nation's food supply safer and ensure that food companies keep their business in the kitchen—and out of the courtroom.

Ryan Yost is vice president for the Printer Solutions Division (PSD) for Avery Dennison Corporation. Avery Dennison Printer Solutions responds to the unique challenges of businesses in the food, retail and fulfillment markets. Its solutions are rooted in efficiency, cost savings, food safety and sustainability through intelligent innovations that solve business problems and improve business processes.