FDA announces the 12 winners of the FDA New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge. From the time the challenge was launched on June 1, 2021, until the submission window closed on July 30, 2021, there were 90 submissions. Winning teams represented the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. Submitting teams were also from Australia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.

A goal of the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative is to help achieve end-to-end traceability—from source to table—throughout the food safety system. Tapping into new technologies and integrating data streams will help to advance the widespread, consistent implementation of traceability systems across the food industry.

However, the affordability of such technologies, particularly for smaller companies, can be a barrier to adopting tech-enabled traceability systems. To achieve end-to-end food traceability, accessible tracing solutions are needed.

The primary goal of this challenge has been to encourage stakeholders, including technology providers, public health advocates, entrepreneurs and innovators from all disciplines to develop traceability hardware, software, or data analytics platforms that are low-cost or no-cost to the end user. 

Learn more about the winners and watch the videos they submitted on FDA’s Food Traceability Challenge page