Food and Drug Administration to Hold a Meeting On Using AI and Blockchain to Trace Food Items

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration Authority) in the United States has unveiled plans to host public discussion forums as part of a new initiative being referred to as the age of keener food safety.

On September 17^th, 2019, the FDA through an announcement stated that it was at an advanced stage to hold a public meeting and consultative forum with both local and international stakeholders.

In its announcement, it added that the meeting will occur on October 21^st, and has been designed to discuss and consult on how the Food Safety Modernization Act can be implemented. This meeting will also look into the various public health challenges available today.

The Food and Drug Administration has a keen interest in establishing a new system that will be safer, trackable, and of a digital nature. It is a system that is intended to protect the public from ingesting food that has already been contaminated.

More Effective Tracking

Its initiative has made recommendations to use emerging technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and blockchain to come up with a system that users can use to assess food contamination risks and also trace where the products have been shipped from.

Dr. Ned Sharpless, the acting FDA Commissioner had announced this initiative earlier in the year together with Frank Yiannas, the Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response.

In their announcement released on April this year, the two commissioners had stated that the new technology can make it easier to reduce the amount of time that is required to trace the source origin of contaminated food products. It would also simplify the response process, in case, it was established that there were serious public health risks.

Industry Leaders Concentrating on Blockchain

Blockchain technology is capable of transforming and introducing much-needed changes to the food industry. Some food producers and retailers have already started to apply the technology in their stores and industries. A few weeks ago, Nestle stated that it had been forced to assume the mindset of a startup company for it to effectively push ahead with its complex blockchain undertaking.