Webinar Release

Food Traceability: Current Status and Future Opportunities 

Thursday, October 5, 2023 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT

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The Council for Agricultural Science & Technology (CAST), in a joint effort with the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), is pleased to invite participants to the webinar release of our latest paper, "Food Traceability: Current Status and Future Opportunities," presented by Dr. Robert Gravani, Oct. 5, noon-1 p.m. (CDT).  

 Participation in this webinar is free, but registration is required.

• Investigate and discuss the development and use of various technologies to enable the traceability of food products and thus enhance food safety, source transparency, and consumer confidence. 

• Deep dive into the technological infrastructure underlying food traceability platforms, and discuss the history of such platforms, current state of the technology, ongoing U.S. food traceability regulatory initiatives, and the likelihood of commercial scale deployment. 

• Address current infrastructure limitations that may slow technology implementation.

Presenter Information:  

Publication Task Force Chair, Dr. Robert Gravani, Professor Emeritus, Food Science at Cornell University will be presenting. There will be a question and answer session following the presentation at each session.  

More Information:

Food traceability has been defined as “the ability to track and trace any food through all stages of production, processing and distribution” (including importation and at retail). Though food traceability supports numerous use cases (e.g., supply chain optimization, sustainability efforts, and product differentiation), food safety remains one of the most critical applications. Food traceability enables corrective actions (such as a product recall) to be implemented quickly and effectively when something goes wrong. When a potential food safety problem is identified, an effective traceability system can help isolate and prevent contaminated products from reaching consumers. Food traceability not only facilitates consumer awareness of potentially harmful products but can also be used to provide desirable information about provenance. 

The technology and enabling architecture of food traceability is rapidly advancing in response to demand from consumers, food producers, distributors and retailers, and food safety regulators. There have been several technological and regulatory developments that make clear that credible, functional, and impactful food traceability is likely to become a reality in the United States.