Food Traceability & Health Crisis - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

The study below focusses on understanding the relationship between health crisis and food traceability. For a comprehensive understanding and reaching our desired goals, I came up with a different hypothesis to test where sample data was collected to test whether the data's hypothesis is true or false. To prove a hypothesis to be true or false, I was interested in reaching the stakeholders and interviewing them regarding my hypothesis. The results presented a comprehensive understanding of the data gathered. Interviews happened to be the ideal modes of data collection because I met the stakeholders and gathered first-hand information that was reliable and relevant for the research.

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Overview

Before the outbreak of the current global pandemic Covid-19 and the ensuing supply challenges, 2020 was considered one of the financial years where most people worldwide saw opportunities and even success in food safety security. All this happened and shone the light in the various departments, such as the emerging technologies and the presumed future of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety and blueprints from the U.S. (Wang et al., 2015). Various departments in the U.S., such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken charge and gotten prepared to execute actions. Many companies have understood the dynamics of business and the structures therein. The majority of the companies consider doing their food tracing, thus helping them know all they need to know regarding the products' sources.

Just as the developments progress, the consumers continue to exert more pressure on supply chain practices, calling for safer foods and information and data as evidence to help in marketing ideologies such as organic products, locally sourced and clean (Aung & Chang, 2014). These were some of the metrics that were assumed to increase in status as consumers, exhausted in regards to the current pandemic crisis, could grow and become more interested in openness and building of trust with the brands that they expected them to ferry them through the trying times. The same idea that many retailers would be interested in making more information available is building trust. The year that was presumed to be full of hope in many industries and the very year that ushered in a new decade has transformed many lives and already feels like a halt or eye-opener to the food supply channels. To have a comprehensive understanding of the food traceability changes, we can consider to look into the regulatory activities, technology impacts, and consumer centricity in the coming years and show the opportunities that lie in every food safety professional to ensure they create an impact in the industry.Regulatory Activity: The New Era of Smarter Food Safety and FSMA

FDA's initiated a vast plan referred to as the New Era of Smarter Food Safety was launched last year in spring (Wang et al., 2015). All the efforts were inclined and signified renewed energy, especially on the traceability of food that created impacts to several people who commented from several comments that were supportive from the very many food industry organizations before there was a closure of the comment period (Wang et al., 2015).

Consumer-Centricity: Closing the Gap

In a current study, Deloitte realized that there had been an increased buying of new food categories for two years, which has been accounted for at least 60% expenditure on the products. Another research realized that a significant number of consumers, roughly 65%, wish to know more about where the food products came from (Narsimhalu et al., 2015). Just as the consumers continue to diversify their eating habits, it becomes an integral part of the society for the suppliers and retailers to serve the clients with the reliable information, which would offer peace of mind (Aung & Chang, 2014). By prioritizing food traceability, various food industries can work in conjunction to close these gaps. The gaps are between consumers' demands for healthy food products and the industry's ability to meet those demands with an assurance of safety (Narsimhalu et al., 2015).

A significant number of the challenges could be addressed by putting considerations on the following key drivers of change, which would ensure proper navigation of the food industry through a progressively unsettling year (Narsimhalu et al., 2015). Now, these plans call for a continued collaboration between supply chain partners, which is critical in fueling the journey.

Food Traceability

The answer could be a yes or a no. For a genuine retailer, especially one who would be contacted to trace back the products' source, it would be essential to ensure the supplier is reliable. In a case where contamination of food would occur, the retailer can track back the source of the products and have a comprehensive way of calling back the products to the company. Some retailers would be money-hungry, and thus, the supplier's knowledge and information on suppliers' choices would never be a factor to consider. The end-users of products are more likely than not going to relate more with the retailers other than the suppliers. Still, again if the clients persist on their desire to know the products' source, this would help the retailers choose the ideal supplier who would bring products from where the customers would wish to have their products emanate.

Analysis

Is food traceability a determining factor to consumers? 80% of customer respondents said food traceability is essential while the remaining 20% mentioned that so long as the products were fit for consumption from the bureau of standards, they would not be concerned of the sources of food products.

Between a traceable food product and food products that are not traceable, where would you (customers) wish to source your products? Some consumers were not interested in knowing where the products came from having faith that the government had the power to ensure her citizen's food products are safe.

New tools developed to avoid traceability breaks are essential, but they should not be imposed on stakeholders who still find the old models efficient and effective. Traceability involves the use of various models. Whatever that works for one product could not work for another, and thus the demands of traceability ought to be handled at an individual product level.

The question of new tools was directed to the stakeholders in and within a business. 79% of the stakeholders felt that their devices on product traceability were working fine for them, and thus they did not need new tools for the same task. 13% said that incorporating new and old models brought about immense and comprehensive tracing of food. 8% were not sure whether there were early or late models. In summary, models that work for a particular business should be upheld to make the best food traceability outcome.

Production is an integral part of food products, and this goes from agriculturally grown products to industry processed products. The nation's bureau of standards ought to be involved in the assessment of food products. It should always be that whenever the products pass the standards test and affect the consumers, the bureau of standards is held responsible since they determine the safety of the products. In the current situation, Covid-19 has been a health crisis globally. Under the health crisis, there is a need to reinforce normative frameworks for food traceability in production.

Conclusion

From a survey I conducted in different food industries, the handling of food products in transportation depends on its exposure to contaminants. In the beverage and carbonated drinks industries, most of the processes are automated. Yet, they faced a slight decline in customers' consumption because of the need to have healthy products on the table for use. The water industry had a significant sell of their products because the virus's nature would be washed down the esophagus to the stomach where the stomach conditions would not be favorable for its survival. From the results, it is even more clear that different food industries are affected differently.

References

Aung, M. M., & Chang, Y. S. (2014). Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives. Food control, 39, 172-184.

Narsimhalu, U., Potdar, V., & Kaur, A. (2015). A case study to explore influence of traceability factors on Australian food supply chain performance. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 189, 17-32.

Wang, J., Chen, T., & Wang, J. (2015). Research on cooperation strategy of enterprises’ quality and safety in food supply chain. Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, 2015.