IFT Food Safety & Quality Conference to Address Much-Needed Traceability

Hot on the heels of VTEC2009 (which we blogged about here: E. Coli and Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome Topics of VTEC 2009 Conference) comes IFT09, the annual meeting and food expo of the Institute of Food Technologists.

As described on the IFT09 website, “the Institute of Food Technologists is a nonprofit scientific society with more than 20,000 individual members working in food science, food technology, and related professions in industry, academia, and government.” Or, as described by an IFT09 attendee in one of the meeting’s promotional videos, IFT is a network of “food geeks.” Sessions at the conference cover a broad range of topics from science and product development (such as ingredients and flavorings, nanotechnology, and DNA detection of foodborne pathogens) to health and wellness (health effects of antioxidants, carbohydrates, and more).

On Wednesday, IFT will host the Global Food Safety & Quality Conference, which will focus on food product and ingredient traceability. Among the objectives planned for discussion:  the need for traceability in the food industry, how to overcome financial and other challenges of maintaining an effective traceability system, currently available technologies, and potential research directions.

We’ve blogged before on the necessity of efficient traceability; the first example that comes to mind is the need for ingredient traceback in frozen foods, which you can read about here: Frozen Food Safety. Convening for a discussion of the traceability issue in food safety is a smart move by industry, considering the future possibility of increased regulatory demands for traceability as outlined in the recent discussion draft of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (in case you missed it: House Committee Releases Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 Discussion Draft). We’re certainly interested to hear any ideas that spring forth from the IFT conference, and eager to see useful ideas put into practice by a food industry sorely in need of a strong traceability system.