WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) officially launched the Global Food Traceability Center at a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2013. The Center will serve as an authoritative, scientific, and unbiased source for food traceability. Currently there is no single entity, public or private, that brings together key stakeholders in the agri-food system to collaborate on providing timely product tracing solutions.
All of the presentations can be viewed below. To set up individual interviews with any of the speakers, please contact Mindy Weinstein at mweinstein@ift.org, 312-604-0231.
William Fisher, IFT Vice President of Science and Policy Initiatives–overview of Global Food Traceability Center and current projects underway. View video
Four key stakeholders, each one representing a group with strong interests in food traceability, also gave presentations in support of the new Center. These include:
- Sherri McGarry, Senior Advisor, Office of Foods, U.S. Food and Drug Administration talked about FDA’s interest and plans related to product tracing. View video
- Jack Sinclair, Executive Vice President of the Grocery Division at Walmart provided the food industry and retailer perspective on why traceability is needed. View video
- Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director of the Food Safety Program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest discussed consumers’ interests and traceability’s benefits. View video
- Artavazd Hakobyan, Food Safety Technical Lead with the Global Food Safety Partnership at the World Bank explained how traceability will impact the global food supply. View video
In addition, the speakers participated in a Q&A session (video) and IFT President Janet Collins, Ph.D, R.D., CFS provided a brief overview of IFT (video).
Founding sponsors of the Global Food Traceability Center include Cargill, Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories, FMI Foundation, Global Cold Chain Alliance, GS1 US, International Association for Food Protection, Intertek Group, Lyngsoe Systems, Mars, National Fisheries Institute, PepsiCo, Produce Marketing Association, University of Guelph, and Walmart.
For more information, please visit the IFT Traceability Web Site: www.globalfoodtraceability.org or contact William Fisher, IFT Vice President of Science & Policy Initiatives at wfisher@ift.org.
About IFT
For more than 70 years, IFT has existed to advance the science of food. Our nonprofit scientific society—more than 18,000 members from more than 100 countries—brings together food scientists, technologists and related professions from academia, government, and industry. For more information, please visit ift.org.
Source: Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)
