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Just a few short years ago, in 2009, 9 people were reported dead while another 22,000 became ill after consuming tainted peanut paste from the Peanut Corporation of America. New York Times called this event one of the most tragic outbreaks of food-born illness. In 2010, news of a single death and 76 illnesses broke out linking to salmonella infested ground turkey.

The biggest disappointment that comes out of these stories is that even after 50% of companies in the food industry are still failing to meet FDA standards to maintain records about food sources. In fact, the US has been ranked as the top five nations with the worst food safety by Changes.org in 2010. Whenever there is an outbreak, these records never fail to identify the cause and source of food tainting.

As a result of these incidences, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) now allows the FDA to issue food recalls while also increasing the number of inspections performed. The FSMA is focusing on not only improving food safety but also targeting financial ramifications that are caused by poor traceability when it comes to foods. The importance of traceability will allow the FDA to pinpoint recalls to specific batch numbers, which will in turn reduce the severity of these outbreaks as well as minimize the impact they have on the population.

Gaining consumer trust in food safety can only be reprimanded with effective food traceability solutions. Bad peanuts and salmonella-tainted turkey always prompt consumers to seek more information about where the food comes from, and as a result, stores are stepping up to answer these questions by using QR code technology to make it easy for consumers to trace back the exact location of tainted products.

Producers are not liable to create and retrieve food source information, which is easily done using bar code technology. Using bar code labeling for produce and food retailers allows the products to be traced back to the fields where the items were first picked. This way, retailers, consumers and suppliers have specific details on the origin of their products.