On April 29, the FDA will launch its first in a new quarterly podcast series that focuses on the development and use of new technologies to strengthen the ability of FDA, regulated industry and others to accelerate prevention, speed outbreak response and more swiftly adapt to crises that could affect the human and animal food supply. Each quarter the podcast will examine a different aspect of the Core Elements in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint for which there are novel technological approaches and solutions.

The podcast will be hosted by FDA and feature top experts involved in food safety and technology. The agency says the goal is to discuss current and emerging technologies and solutions, with all their opportunities and challenges, and explore how they may facilitate and enhance food safety.

First Episode: Tech-enabled traceability in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety The first Core Element of the New Era for Smarter Food Safety Blueprint establishes goals that involve the use of technology to achieve end-to-end traceability throughout the food safety system. In the first podcast, Andrew Kennedy, MBA, operations research analyst in FDA’s Office of Food Policy and Response, and CDR Kari Irvin, MS, deputy director of the office of Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition—co-leads of the Core Element 1 team—will lead a discussion with technology and food industry experts on the role they envision new technologies will play in improving traceability, and their perspectives on how FDA can help facilitate adoption of new technologies.

Experts include:

• Institute of Food Technologists (IFT): Alison Grantham, Ph.D., Global Food Traceability Center
• FMI: The Food Industry Association: Hilary Thesmar, Ph.D., RD, CFS – Chief Food and Product Safety Officer and SVP Food Safety
• GS1 – Angela Fernandez – Vice-President, Community Engagement

FDA notes that this podcast will be focused on technologies that may be used to improve food traceability. They will not be discussing the Food Traceability Proposed Rule, which would, if finalized, establish new traceability record requirements for certain foods.

The link to listen will be posted on Thursday, April 29, 2021 at New Era of Smarter Food Safety TechTalk Podcast. Registration is not required, but questions can be emailed in advance to SmarterFoodSafety@fda.hhs.gov. Questions submitted by April 22, 2021, may be considered by the panelists.