key: cord-0747993-8dwwz7av authors: Detwiler, Darin title: Implementing future food safety technologies date: 2020-10-16 journal: Building the Future of Food Safety Technology DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-818956-6.00020-8 sha: 1669a86f3c733da737fd47cf060ada77868bd399 doc_id: 747993 cord_uid: 8dwwz7av This chapter offers executives and experts new perspectives on implementing regulatory technology. The overlap of policies and regulations shines light on the entire journey of food from the farm to the fork. That being said, the importance of “the last mile” of food safety is stressed, along with need to find a better balance between human needs and corporate social responsibilities. Until recently, most food safety has focused on food production, manufacturing, and supply chain. Massive amounts of brain power, capital, and technology have poured into this segment of food's journey to the family table. Agriculture is still seen, however, as "one of the last traditional industries" that is embracing advanced technologies-including monitoring tools, centralized digital platforms, data analytics, and precision agriculture (Lynch, 2018) . While these technologies offer hope for resiliency and sustainability, the FDA's "New Era of Smarter Food Safety" sees technology as a means for traceability and transparency. When viewed across the entire food spectrum, food safety is a continuous process from farm to fork where critical milestones, checkpoints, and (far too many) assumptions are made along the way. Data collected annually by the US Department of Commerce since 1992 revealed in March 2015 that sales at restaurants and bars had surpassed those at grocery stores (Jamrisko, 2015) . Essentially, this reflects US consumers' changing eating habits as we are now spending more money dining out or eating foods prepared outside the home than buying groceries to prepare food in the home. That stated, restaurants and retail locations-that "last mile"-are where food safety is arguably the most perilous. This actually reflects the last 100 feet of food's journey that is most likely to cause consumers to become ill, hospitalized, or worse. Some experts hold that the future of technology in the food industry is, perhaps, most visible in restaurants and retail locations-often referred to as the "last mile" of food's journey. Here, consumers can easily find evidence of technologies' impact on marketing, ordering, and delivery options, whereas those in the industry are using new technologies for sourcing, inventory, management, and even automation (Avant, 2017) . At the same time, others see retail food safety as not having received the attention it deserves as the baseline, protective element of the $6 Trillion food consumed each year at the Retail and Food Service level in the United States (Conway, 2020) . All of the work and investment in protecting the food we consume is lost the minute food products land at the loading dock of the food establishment-if the food is not stored, prepared, and served properly. The FDA recognizes the importance of this "last mile" and has created the biannual, voluntary, model Food Code that provides guidance on Food-borne Illness Risk Factors and Public Health Interventions as well as Good Retail Practices to help mitigate these risks (FDA, 2019). However well intended, this food code is often insufficient due to the lack of enforceability, poor training, and a dearth of technology solutions designed specifically for the regulatory authorities and owner/operators who are supposed to keep the public safe. It is important to note that some states may have updated to the 2017 Food Code in recent months, while many still operate under adopted versions from 2013 and even older versions dating as far back as 1995. However, these wide-ranging and inconsistent regulatory requirements provide significant challenges for multistate retailers and restaurant chains that operate in numerous jurisdictions because they must comply with each iteration of the Food Code throughout the 3000 US regulatory jurisdictions (FDA, 2018; Weeda, 2017) . The greatest challenges that retailers that operate in numerous jurisdictions face when attempting to comply with the various Food Code editions include (1) inconsistent health inspection standards; (2) inconsistent training requirements; and (3) inconsistent jurisdictional authority. Each of these inconsistencies create tremendous barriers for retailers and restaurants to protect public health to the best of their abilities. Due to the lack of one single version of the Food Code, consumers must worry whether the zip code they are eating food in will place them at a higher risk of contracting foodborne illness. The need in this "last mile" exists, then, for a digitized, mobile platform for the entire inspection process so inspectors have all of the tools they need in the field, exactly when they need them. This technology solution would also need to allow users to select the applicable version of the FDA Food Code for the jurisdiction of concern. Few examples exist of a technology such as this-including one created by a leading, national food safety consulting firm in Boston. Many perspectives and responsibilities must be considered when evaluating new food safety technologies. • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943) reminds us that food and water are human's most basic, physiological needs. Second to that is safety and well-being-not only the safety of consumers, but also, as the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed, that of employeesdespecially in slaughterhouses and meat packing plants. • Archie Carroll's Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility holds that economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities are also at play (Carroll, 2016) . • Comparing the two allows one to consider that ethical and philanthropic responsibilities (higher in the CSR pyramid) related to food safety (at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy) are increasingly impacting companies' economic and legal concerns. • Economically speaking, discussions of the ROI on investing in such technology have often come with the criticism that cost/benefit analyses must take into consideration the long-term benefits not only for the company's profit and reputation but also for consumers' well-being. • Legally speaking, a company being sued for causing the illness or death of a consumer due to failures in food safety will have a hard time making the argument that investing in proven food safety technologies was not necessary. 5 technology trends to know: A rundown of what's new and what's next in technology as it relates to five aspects of running a restaurant business. 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