Key Drivers of the Food Services Business
Increase in outbreak of foodborne disease and frequent food safety accidents
Foodborne disease is a major cause of ill-health among the poor and is associated with a range of costs, including lost workdays, out-of-pocket expenses, and reduced value of livestock and other assets. A Joint Statement issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) stated that:
“Foodborne diseases have a significant impact on public health, food security, productivity and poverty.”
Impact on human health may be diverse, either with immediate effects such as bacterial deceases coming from infected food or with long term consequences as a regular intake of a toxic or carcinogenic substances in very small quantities but along a life time.
The value that Testing, Inspection, and Certification services can add to the Food industry is to identify hazards, control risks, and establish effective management systems to ensure food safety on all players involved in the food supply chain, from farmers and producers to retailers and caterers.
Rise in consumer awareness about food safety and quality
With economic development and adequate food supplies, food quality and safety have gained more attention amongst consumers. Consumers are demanding more food quality and safety information. It is essential to increase authenticity, transparency and traceability of food production along the supply chain.
Concerns about sustainability are nowadays becoming important factor that lead consumers’ decisions. Restriction of pesticide usage is for example expected by a growing part of consumers in rich countries.
That is why a transparent, scientific and independent information about food origins becomes more and more necessary to get the confidence of consumers that get many information from social medias and NGOs.
TIC industry can help Food industry prove the safety and quality of food ingredients, food processing and distribution processes and therefore offer better transparency and traceability through testing, label reviewing, and traceability auditing.
More stringent food safety regulations
Food safety is a highly prioritized regulatory sector by all types of authorities. Food safety requires continuous monitoring by different products, different process, and even at different time slots.
In various part of the world, large economic areas such as European Union, China, North American countries are building detailed regulations for all sort of food or animal feed. Authorized limits are going down even further as sensitivity of instruments are improving. All countries are progressively applying those rules in their own regulation.
TIC services enable more effective controls in preventing food fraud and food accident which allows regulators to minimize the risk and have a better opportunity to manage the situation in the increasing complex environment.
Globalisation in food supply chain
Increasingly, there is an international aspect to food and water production as ingredients, products, or parts of products, may come from several countries around the world, requiring more and more proofs of quality, safety, and compliance.
This globalisation does not concern just human food but goes along the food chain including animal feeds too. This makes even more complex to trace potential food safety issues. Assessing this risk requires a broad knowledge and expertise about the agrifood supply chain.
Thus, TIC’s conformity activities help food importers and exporters meet the requirements and regulations from both supplying and consuming economies.
Increase in demand for convenience and packaged food products
The production of food involves complex supply chains and requires different types of processes. Nowadays consumers’ behaviour is more and more shifting to convenience and packaged food products instead of raw products only. This growing trend has extended food supply chain and increased the chance of food contamination, hence the need to control food risks.
Package food processed in large scale facilities exposes the food companies to new safety risks. The baby powder industry offers quite a telling example of those risk of process related contamination (bacteria like salmonella or mineral oils among other risks)
In this context, the development and assessment of processed food safety for the whole supply chain are necessary and in high demand. TIC services are becoming more important than ever before.
Technological advancement in food production and detection
Technology is transforming the food industry in every aspect from producing and processing to distributing and marketing. The introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), plant-based meat, innovated nonthermal processing and decontamination technology are amongst the examples. As the ingredients and the process of the food product becomes more and more complex, better technology is required to determine and prove the safety and quality of food products.
As an illustration of this rising complexity on methods, new methods to monitor adulteration or contaminants in food are developed to detect “non-targeted substances” in order to anticipate possible new surge of contaminations or frauds that are not necessarily expected and consequently targeted in routine analysis.
TIC services with advanced testing methodology/equipment and the use of high technology and innovation support the efforts to upgrade the capabilities of the food industry and the development of sustainable and consistent standard.
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