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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food safety

When it Comes to Identifying the Source of Foodborne Illness, The Future is Now

Foodborne illnesses are not only an unpleasant personal experience for millions of Americans each year, they’re a logistical concern for businesses, with the potential to drive and keep people (and their dollars) away for good. As our food supply becomes increasingly global, the ability to accurately and quickly identify the source of any pathogen causing a foodborne illness has become exponentially more difficult. To ensure the safety of what we eat, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to build upon its early success with digital technology and whole-genome sequencing for its New Era of Smarter Food Safety.

Whole-genome sequencing

At its simplest, a genome is the information a cell needs to create an organism. Since an organism’s genome is as unique as a fingerprint, sequencing that genome is the first step in being able to quickly identify just what is making a person sick. Scientists generate the sequence by gathering samples of a particular food in a sterile environment, mashing it up, and conducting the genome analysis. The result is the fingerprint for that specific entity.

The problem is, having this information on hand at the local level is useful only under very limited circumstances. For instance, it would be enough if a group of people became ill after eating a single meal with food sourced locally, in a single sitting at a single event. With a few calls, it might be possible to identify the food causing the illness and take steps to keep it from being shipped to new locations.

More common is the case in which a number of people with nothing in common at first become ill within days of one another. Making a match between the pathogen causing the illness and the pathogen in each food involved is still fairly straightforward – if everything is sourced locally. But what if some of the food comes from sources across the globe? How are the fingerprints for those foods going to be of use in stopping the spread of the illness to additional locations when there is no way to readily communicate with other localities?

GenomeTrakr

So, to bring whole-genome information into play on a global scale, the FDA created a United States-based open-source distributed network of labs in 2013. The result is GenomeTrakr – the stuff of foodie-sci-fi. It makes whole-genome sequences from foods around the world available globally. Any health agency, anywhere on the network, can upload data from a pathogen causing illness in their locality and receive information about entities that match or closely approximate that sequence. In effect, the power of the digital fingerprinting and related DNA sampling now in use in law enforcement  can be put to work for foodborne illness outbreaks by either making a match or reporting that the match is likely to be found within a certain cluster of “related” genome sequences. This game-changing use of whole-genome sequencing has already helped to halt the spread of global foodborne pathogens several times.

A digital framework

But global genome sequencing is still not all that is needed to safeguard the food supply – and your health. Being able to readily access a whole-genome sequence  can tell you which food is the culprit, but how do you know where the food originated, what path it took from field to plate, and where any additional product is currently located on its journey from field to plate?

The FDA’s remedy to this part of the challenge is to digitize the records kept at each step of a food’s journey through the global system. Rather than filling out a paper form that remains local or creating a paper-based dossier that travels with a food shipment, each step along the way will be documented in a globally accessible, digital format. The result will be a system that complements the GenomeTrakr by making it possible to trace the source of a foodborne pathogen to its point of origin in minutes rather than weeks or months.

Why does it matter? It matters because ready access to the genome, the origin, and the trail it traveled will make it possible to stop the flow of this food through the system: It will keep additional people from becoming ill.

A blueprint

As the first step in the FDA’s Strategic Blueprint for this New Era of Smarter Food Safety, agencies and companies from all parts of the food sector met in October to discuss the logistics of the new approach and offer input.  Considerations ranging from ownership of the data to concerns about data transfer were among the many raised. These issues are not not only vital to the integrity of the data in the system, but will also result in a system we can count on when we sit down to eat.

 

Eat Safe Verified Wants to Fight Food Recalls and Waste with Radical Transparency

Remember last year’s notorious romaine lettuce recall? That was only one of hundreds of food recalls in 2018 alone. These outbreaks are the sort of food safety issues that a new startup called Eat Safe Verified (ESV) is trying to mitigate. Their solution? Putting more information into the hands of consumers in the form of an app that lists details about the contaminant testing, ingredient sourcing, manufacturing and more behind each product.

We were pretty intrigued by this concept, so we chose ESV as one of the 12 finalists for the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase. To give you a little taste of the action, we spoke with founder and CEO Kiran Kastury about how radical transparency can help solve widespread issues like food waste, allergic reactions and contamination.

Check out the Q&A then get your tickets to SKS to see Kastury pitch live in Seattle this October!

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.

First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
Eat Safe Verified makes software that brings people and food closer together. Consumers can gain valuable insights into their food, while food businesses are able to easily share information across their supply chain to expedite their business processes, thereby ensuring effective transparency, communication, and collaboration.

What inspired you to start your company?
My co-founder and I collectively have spent years working in bio-tech, specifically in the food testing and analytical services sector, where we saw a huge number of food companies unable to effectively show their customers how they strove to make the best product possible. Furthermore, we were tired of hearing about situations like food recalls, consumers getting sick because of allergens or food contaminations, and food getting lost and wasted by the ton. We believed that in today’s tech-driven world, there had to be a better way for people to learn more about their food, and a better way for companies to easily share information throughout their network.

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
I think that education and awareness are probably the biggest hurdles for food tech startups right now. In the case of ESV, we are embarking on a mission of introducing the concepts of information sharing and transparency to an industry that hasn’t been faced with this sort of disruption just yet. We’re confident that with the right product however, we can transform how food is perceived by people on a daily basis.

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
With launching ESV, we are well on track for achieving the free flow of information all the way from the farm to the consumers’ fingertips. Consumers wouldn’t have to spend the significant amount of time they do now worrying about whether or not they are eating a potentially harmful allergen, putting irresponsibly created food in their bodies, adhering to dietary restrictions for heath or personal reasons. I think that ESV is the answer to ensuring that things like consumer miseducation, consumer harm, or food loss cease to happen as regularly.

Come watch Kastury pitch live onstage at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

Tech From MIT Uses RFID to Reveal Food Contamination

Given the job I have, my parents like to tell me about food tech-related news they come across. Last night they were trying to explain a story from CBS This Morning that aired yesterday, but they had trouble relaying it. “It’s a scanner, you use it at the market… something about e. coli and…”

Intrigued, I found the report they were talking about. It’s no wonder they couldn’t explain it: the story was vague and provided almost no details as to how the technology works. So, for my parents and anyone else who saw the CBS Story and wanted a little more information, here are some details.

The technology in question is RFIQ (radio frequency IQ). Here’s a brief explainer from the MIT RFIQ research page:

Our system leverages RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) stickers that are already attached to hundreds of billions objects. When an RFID powers up and transmits its signal, it interacts with material in its near vicinity (i.e., inside a container) even if it is not in direct contact with that container. This interaction is called “near-field coupling,” and it impacts the wireless signal transmitted by an RFID. Our system, RFIQ, extracts features from this signal and feeds it to a machine learning model that can classify and detect different types of adulterants in the container.

You can read the full RFIQ paper.

According to the research overview, the technology can detect fake alcohol (like if methanol is mixed into a drink) with 97 percent accuracy, and tainted baby formula with 96 percent accuracy. In the CBS story, MIT Assistant Professor, Fadel Adib said RFIQ could be used for a broader set of applications including finding lead in water or e. coli on lettuce.

The bones of RFIQ sound akin to hyperspectral imaging, which studies how light reflects off objects to assess freshness, quality and foreign objects. But companies like ImpactVision and P&P Optica, which use hyperspectral imaging, don’t tout the technology as a way to detect foodborne illnesses.

The drawback to the RFIQ technology as it is envisioned now, is that in order for it to work, each item has to have a RFID sticker on it, and the user would have to carry around a small device that would plug into their phone to scan each item. This seems cumbersome and a big ask for food producers and consumers alike.

I’m sure Mr. Fadel and his team have thought about this and way beyond what I’m pondering. There is probably a more industrial grade solution that can be implemented in bulk throughout the supply chain. The RFIQ technology is still five years out from reaching the market anyway, so who knows what breakthroughs and advancements the MIT team will make by then.

For now, I’m just happy that there are researchers going about solving the problem of food contamination from different angles, and I’m happy to help fill in the blanks of my parents’ news watching.

After More Romaine Recalls, Is Blockchain the Missing Link in Preventing Outbreaks?

If you have any Romaine lettuce in your crisper, it’s time to chuck it. Yesterday the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that romaine lettuce is unsafe to eat in any form due to contamination by a dangerous type of E. Coli bacteria.

The warning throws a large net, covering any lettuce already purchased, or waiting to be bought either wholesale or on supermarket shelves. And with good reason. According to the Washington Post, the CDC doesn’t know where, when, or how the contamination happened. Which means that instead of pinpointing the source(s) of contamination and eliminating lettuce just from those suppliers, they have to play it safe and sentence all Romaine nationwide to the trash bin.

Not only does that ruin a lot of Caesar salads — especially ones destined for the Thanksgiving table — but it also creates a mountain of food waste, and could have wide-reaching effects on produce farmers. This outbreak also comes only a few months after another load of E. Coli-contaminated Romaine (apparently unrelated to the current batch) left 5 dead.

One tool which some think could help solve the problem is blockchain. While blockchain can’t prevent an outbreak from happening, it can help quickly identify the source so that farmers can prevent further contamination. It also allows retailers to take only contaminated products off their shelves, so they aren’t stuck tossing out the baby with the bathwater.

Some companies are already harnessing blockchain to try and increase food traceability. In September, Walmart announced that they would require all its leafy green vegetable suppliers to upload production data to the blockchain through its IBM Food Trust Network. Ripe.io is recently raised $2.4 million to create its “Blockchain for Food,” which allows users to access a detailed record of any food item at any time.

Food traceability company FoodLogiQ is also experimenting with blockchain. In June they launched an R&D hub to explore new technologies in food safety. The first project’s focus: blockchain.

I reached out to FoodLogiQ’s CMO Katy Jones to get her take on the latest Romaine recall. She said that news like this illustrates just how direly we need end-to-end traceability in the food system. And blockchain could play a role in that.

“[Blockchain has] potential to be a transformative method to open up transparency in the food supply chain,” she said.

But it’s not a perfect solution. “Without data built on a common standard and supply chain partners committed to gathering and reporting on that data, blockchain alone will not solve these issues,” concluded Jones. After all, at its core blockchain is just a ledger, which means it’s only as good as the information that humans — who have been known to make mistakes — enter.

The bottom line is that we don’t know how effective blockchain will be in helping to identify and mitigate outbreaks. But we do know that until the majority of farmers, retailers, and everyone in between is united in using the new technology, blockchain won’t be the magic bullet that some hope it to be. Sorry, lettuce lovers.

Food Blockchain: Hype Or True Path To Food Transparency

At a 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit panel, executives from ripe.io and Walmart tackled the role of blockchain in food — and food safety. Watch the video to hear the whole conversation.

Yelp Is Now Listing Restaurant Hygiene Scores, and Not Everyone’s Thrilled

Today, Yelp announced the national rollout of its LIVES program, which posts restaurant hygiene scores alongside other basic info about eating establishments (via The New York Post).

Not everyone’s happy about this. Especially the restaurants.

Yelp started the LIVES program in 2013 in the company’s hometown of San Francisco. To expand on a national level, Yelp teamed up with HDScores, who reportedly has data on almost 1.2 million U.S. restaurants.

This could be a big win for consumers. After all, nobody wants a side of salmonella poisoning with their huevos rancheros. And while some states require by law that restaurants post their health grade in the window, much of the granular information is hard to find. As Yelp writes on its official blog:

“Unfortunately, this information is often buried on clunky ‘dot gov’ websites beyond the easy reach of consumers. Or equally inconvenient, it’s accessible in the offline world, displayed somewhere in the physical business, and not always obvious to the diner.”

Yelp wants to change that by pulling information like inspection type, number and type of violations, and score over time from government databases and making it easy to read online:

 

On the other hand, it could just be another way for Yelp to needlessly ruin the reputations of restaurants. The San Francisco rollout of LIVES was met with some controversy, since SF’s flawed health-inspection system is well-documented and scores could be outdated and not reflect the actual state of a restaurant. But the casual diner looking for a meal isn’t likely to factor that in when they see “Customer Alert: Poor Food Safety Score!” next to a listing. Yelp and independent restaurants have never been great bedfellows anyway. Complaints against the site run the gamut, from the potentially harmful filtering algorithm to accusations of extortion.

But Yelp’s not going anywhere anytime soon, so if you’re an independent restaurant owner, it’s advisable to arm yourself with tools that can make a business more ready for a visit from the health department. Last year, the FDA released software to help businesses better comply with regulations. There’s also a growing number of apps, of varying quality, that cover everything from food temperature and handling to training staff on best practices. These can help restaurants minimize the risk of getting a poor health-inspection score.

Underscore that word “minimize,” though. Health departments around the country are famous for being fickle and sometimes downright unreasonable. Plus, as others interviewed by the Post worry that Yelp, being a business and not a health department, won’t understand the nuances of some laws and violations. There’s also an added complication that restaurant-inspection laws and scoring varies from state to state. NYC, for example, uses a letter grade system, while Washington DC doesn’t follow a score system and instead files reports. How Yelp will standardize this information and make sense of it for the average person looking for dinner remains to be seen.

As of today, Yelp LIVES is focused on restaurants in California, Texas, Illinois, and Washington, DC. It will roll out updates to other states over the coming months. As to whether or not the program will meet with success in these areas, consider the grade still pending.

FoodLogiQ Announces First Partners for Food Transparency Blockchain Pilot

Earlier today food traceability startup FoodLogiQ revealed the first partners for their upcoming blockchain pilot. According to a press release, they’ll partner with AgBiome Innovations, Subway/Independent Purchasing Cooperative, Testo, and Tyson Foods (the last two of which are also investors in FoodLogiQ) to test the use of blockchain to increase transparency within their supply chains. The pilot is set to kick off later this year.

The company launched FoodLogiQ Labs, an R&D hub for new technologies and products in food safety, earlier last month. Chief Marketing Officer Katy Jones told the Spoon that their first project would be focused on blockchain. This pilot program came a few months after the company raised $19.5 million to intensify and expand their food traceability efforts.

Jones told me that FoodLogiQ’s top priority for the program would be ensuring that their data was standardized and high-quality. “If you don’t have those elements, no amount of transparency will help you,” said Jones. That’s because blockchain is only as strong as its weakest link: if one set of data from the food supply chain is inaccurate — say, the temperature is incorrectly registered for a shipment of chicken — the integrity of the whole thing is compromised. 

She also told me that FoodLogiQ didn’t want to hop on the blockchain bandwagon simply to take advantage of the hype. They’re hoping to use the labs to put together pilots and proof of concepts for blockchain within the food supply chain. But Jones still has some healthy skepticism about this much-heralded technology: “It’s still a relative unknown, especially with regards to food” she said. “And at the end of the day, it may not work for us — that’s the point of doing this R&D work.”

In the same press release, FoodLogiQ CEO Dan said that the company would be “taking the lead on blockchain exploration within the food space.” That may be true — but they’re not the only ones. Other food traceability companies, like Ripe.io and Intelex, are also working to create a blockchain for the food system, as is the Walmart-led Food Trust (which also includes Tyson Foods). The results from FoodLogiQ’s pilot program could indicate whether or not blockchain really has the potential to be a magic bullet for food traceability.