British and European food recall processes still too lengthy and costly

There was a 16 per cent increase (an additional 40 incidents) in food recall and notification occurrences across Europe during the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

Food recall processes can be costly and lengthy for globalised supply chains. The United Kingdom and Europe need effective product recall capability to reduce recall costs and improving timeliness. Such improvements cannot be achieved with general food law alone.

Common, cloud-based, standards recently developed and adopted in North America and Australasia could help increase recall speeds and decrease costs.

Read the full article at TIFSIP Food Safety & Hygiene Analysis.

Email me at alastair.t.marke@gmail.com

Traceability in food chains badly needs a ‘common’ digital platform

Following the “horse-gate” scandal that rocked Europe in 2013, we have just seen another “radiation-gate” incident emerging in Japan and Taiwan last week. Taiwan seized 283 Japanese food products with counterfeit Chinese-language labels, possibly altered in Japan, originally from radiation-stricken Fukushima areas, and ordered them taken off the shelves in local supermarkets. This kind of food fraud incidents on both hemispheres suggests that existing regulations governing food labelling and routine inspection to ensure provenance and traceability, no matter how strict they are, have their own limitations. To avoid food fraudsters turning multi-country food chains into a massive scam that severely undermines consumers’ trust, a preventive measure to consider is the roll-out of a ‘common’ digital platform monitoring all stages of food production and supply chain visibility. 

Climate pledges of China and the US just ‘show-hand’ of carefully calibrated numbers

Rising global temperatures may have already molten frozen soil and caused methane gas to erupt from underground. More giant craters have appeared in Siberian permafrost in Russia – a country that believes it would somewhat benefit from climate change! More climate unknown unknowns like this would become known and fearful even before our state leaders make meaningful pledges. On 12 November 2014, at the APEC Summit, many hailed the US-China climate agreement as something “highly significant” and “adding impetus” into the Paris negotiations later this year, but will it be the case? The US-China emissions-cutting pledges have not changed much my views on the likely COP21 outcome when I was commenting the EU’s 2030 package  last year. It is because neither the US’ nor China’s pledges are ambitious enough while India refuses to follow their lead, worse still, these so called “pledges” are not always the same thing by its name.