FoodChain ID 2021 Tech Predictions | Top Food Safety Services Company-2020

Dr. Ruud Overbeek, Sr. Vice-President, Corporate Development & Strategic Relationship

The need for meaningful data analytics is a primary driver of technology decisions being made in the food and beverage industry. As the industry becomes more digital, the food supply chain provides an increased amount of data that requires robust tools to capture, analyze, and transform data it into valuable insights to better manage food production, reduce risks, and increase food safety.

The abundance of data combined with an increase in consumer demand for transparency has increased the need for: mass data management to normalize the data, AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning to aid data analysis and modeling, integration of systems to increase data accessibility, and more human capital to provide valuable insights gleaned from the data. This will improve traceability and data management processes across a complex food supply chain. While these digital technologies alone will never eliminate all food risks, they will be able to improve speed to response, cost reduction and limited damage.

While today’s technology can produce a wealth of information, information alone is insufficient for firms to be successful, because of:

1. Analysis Paralysis – it’s far too easy to simply request more information.

2. Easy access to data makes us intellectually lazy – the bigger the dataset, the easier it is to find support for any hypothesis you choose to test.

3. Impulsive and Flighty Consumers of Information –the capacity to focus and concentrate on a specific activity is falling.

4. Learning can be dangerous – democratization of information creates an imbalance, with certain people incapable of interpreting and using information in a sensible way.

5. Generation of information will only increase – there was more information generated in 2020 than in the entirety of human history, resulting in a substantial reduction of the value and life of knowledge.

This leads to what we see as an increase in the adoption of AI and machine learning in 2021.

• AI handles repetitive tasks allowing people to focus on the most engaging part of their jobs. AI-powered chat bots are a great example of this.

• AI will also play a role in food safety to transform complex data into meaningful analytics. It will increasingly help companies make use of their data by consolidating it from a variety of sources, making it available in a central searchable source, allowing analysts to identify important changes and patterns, and predict key business metrics.

• More evolved AI algorithms identify trends, segment data, uncover anomalies, and create detailed reports. AI makes connections within millions of seemingly extraneous signals that humans would never be able to analyze otherwise.

• With companies and governments spending billions on AI annually, with technology giants leading the way, and with AI becoming a more prominent part of the curriculum for leading Universities, disruptive breakthroughs are bound to happen including more powerful AI that could read and understand everything humanity has ever written, and allow AI to increasingly take over tasks that were once thought to be exclusively human. It can only be imagined how this can be useful to all.

AI-powered technology will play a key role in food safety to transform complex data into meaningful analytics. That, along with valuable insights provided by the technology and analysts reporting on it are an emergent trend in 2021.

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Company
FoodChain ID

Management
Dr. Ruud Overbeek, Sr. Vice-President, Corporate Development & Strategic Relationship

Description
FoodChain ID is a technical administrator for the Non-GMO Project. FoodChain ID administers the product verification program, assisting companies in obtaining the Non-GMO Project's Butterfly label for their products. FoodChain ID has verified over 50,000 non-GMO products – the vast majority of the North American market – for thousands of brands, producers, retailers, co-packing and manufacturing companies, livestock producers, crop producers, small businesses, and importers and distributors of internationally traded brands

FoodChain ID News

ReSeed and FoodChain ID Announce Ground-Breaking Partnership That Promotes Transparency for Sustainable Practices in the Global Agri-Food Supply Chain

PITTSBURGH and FAIRFIELD - FoodChain ID, announced a partnership to increase transparency in measurement and verification of sustainable practices in the agri-food supply chain. With the goal to support a healthy planet, the partnership will leverage each company's unique, world-class expertise to incentivize, measure and verify the progress of carbon sequestration through regenerative agriculture practices under a new carbon credit verification standard.
The food and agriculture industry currently contributes over one-third of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. However, less than 1% of carbon credits on the market are sourced from agriculture.1 As consumer awareness of the industry's role in accelerating global warming has grown, food companies have responded with more sustainable products and product claims. In fact, on-pack carbon emission contribution claims for new products grew at 33% CAGR between July 2018 and June 2023,2 making such claims one of the fastest growing sustainability claim categories in food and beverage. In response to the claim proliferation, the carbon credit verification partnership is designed to increase measurement transparency and accountability for sustainability progress and carbon credit offsets in the agri-food supply chain.
Additionally, the carbon credit verification partnership incentivizes farmers to invest more in regenerative agriculture practices while complying with European Union deforestation-free regulatory requirements (EUDR). Finally, by combining the program with other farm-level audits, such as Organic (EU, USDA and others), GLOBALG.A.P., RTRS, RSPO, Bonsucro or ProTerra, the program offers efficiencies for farmers. The first joint programs have launched with close to a thousand farmers in Brazil to implement deforestation-free, regenerative practices.
ReSeed, with its AI-powered digital ledger transparency platform, will collect and process data for carbon credit measurement protocols to allow monetization and incentivization for farmers deploying sustainable practices in the field. ReSeed's team will also leverage their legal and technical knowledge to validate carbon estimates under international standards and provide field technical assistance to sort eligible farmers based on sustainability standards for farming activities.
FoodChain ID, with over 25 years of experience in global sustainability certifications, will serve as the exclusive verifier for the carbon credit partnership under ISO 14065 accreditation. FoodChain ID's independent technical experts will perform yearly audits of farm practices under international sustainability standards, adding third-party credibility to the measurement of carbon sequestration in soil.
Dr. Heather Secrist, Senior Vice President, Technical Services Americas at FoodChain ID, comments: "FoodChain ID is proud to partner with ReSeed as the exclusive third-party verifier for this breakthrough partnership which incentivizes the agri-food supply chain to adopt more sustainable practices. Together with the recent launch of our new global standard for Regenerative Agriculture Certification, today's announcement affirms our commitment to contribute to a sustainable and healthy planet, while supporting the livelihood of farmers and a transparent agri-food supply chain."
Zak Zaidman, Co-Founder and President of Partnerships of ReSeed, comments: "Incentivizing and supporting farmers to steward carbon through regenerative farming practices is crucial in the pursuit of a healthy planet. The carbon credit verification partnership announced today with FoodChain ID as the exclusive, independent, third-party verifier increases transparency and trust across the global agri-food supply chain. ReSeed will continue to work closely with global brands and their supply chain to invest in sustainable and regenerative practices to secure the future of both their business and the planet."
1. Ivy S. So, Barbara K. Haya, Micah Elias. May 2023. Voluntary Registry Offsets Database, Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, University of California, Berkeley.
2. Innova Insights/Nutrition Insights, July 2018 to June 2023.