05/07/08 Food Traceability

It has to be one of the major "well, duh" moments in recent food safety history. Searching to come up with a solution to combat the ever growing concerns over food safety and traceability Forbes.com stated in a recent article that "the flow of raw materials and ingredients should be tracked from producers to the manufacturer, and then the finished product would be followed through the distribution process to the retailer; meaning food companies would be able to track their products from field to fork." It seems so obvious and simple. But just how easy a traceability solution would be to implement remains to be seen. Should it have been put into practice years ago, most definitely. Recent surveys have reported that US consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply has dropped drastically in just this last year alone. Not only would food supply traceability be the "socially responsible" thing to do, it would also be just "darn good business". Perhaps if such traceability had been in effect companies such as Topps meat would still be in business.