The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced New Zealand based company Rfider as one of the twelve winners in its ‘New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low or No Cost Food Traceability Challenge.’
Launched in June, the challenge was designed as an incentive for companies to create cost-effective traceability solutions which can be incorporated into human and animal food operations of any scale.
Rfider was the only company outside of North America to win the challenge. It will now be promoted by the FDA as part of its ‘New Era Smarter Food’ campaign.
Rfider chief executive John Pennington said the validation of the company comes during a period of global encouragement by the US to implement tracing technology.
“Anyone in the supply chain network can be up and running in minutes, collecting critical event data in a highly efficient way, without the need for costly integration or app development – we’ve taken care of that,” said Pennington.
The FDA said data from the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention highlighted that approximately 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalised and 3000 die each year from foodborne diseases in the US.
By utilising technology, tools, and other methods to develop a safer digital food traceability system, the FDA has set a goal to “bend the curve of foodborne illness in the United States by reducing the number of illnesses.”
Rfider’s next generation digital food traceability platform helps tackle this issue.
“Frontline staff at every point in a food’s supply chain, from growers through to logistics providers and distributors can now scan products to access mobile first tools which simply traceability and provenance information capture.
Consumers can also scan the same codes to get real-time updates on an item’s safety, allowing them to make more informed purchase and usage decision,” said Pennington.
Pennington added that brands built on integrity and sustainability can gain an edge on their competitors through supply chain transparency.
