Recall Remedy: Q&A with Food LogiQ

by dwjbolton

Rotten tomatoes are the latest of 900 food product recalls in the past 18 months – a list that includes the largest meat recall in U.S. history; a $24 million court settlement from Menu Foods paid to owners whose pets died from melamine poisoning and a spinach disaster in 2006 that continues to depress sales of leafy vegetables.

Natural Food Network asked Tom Furr, chief strategy officer of Smart Online a private label software-as-a-service provider for the small business market.  It co-developed the National Food Safety system with its partner Food LogiQ.

NFN: When the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture discover tainted rice, spinach, meat and tomatoes they wield a bull horn. In some instances these recalls, amplified by the media, seem overblown. In other instances, like the recent tomato scare, the government appears to be doing too little, too late. Why can’t these agencies quickly trace the source, ascertain the scope of the problem, notify retailers and focus on enforcing inspections and practices to prevent recalls from occurring in the first place?

Tom Furr: The federal agencies, and even those at the states’ level, cannot trace the source of a food safety problem with speed and accuracy because the mechanisms in place today do not go to the source of the food. There is an information gap between the point of origin, the farm, and the processor. As such, there is no way to be able to quickly identify the true source of the contamination. That said, the ability to close the information gap exists and it is working well in Canada where our partner FoodLogiQ developed and runs the Canadian Livestock Traceability System for the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (www.canadaid.ca). The CLTS is used by Canada’s 90,000 cattle ranchers to identify 14 million head of cattle when they leave the farm of origin, with 99 percent compliance. In conjunction with traceability, we feel strongly that on-farm audit and early pathogen detection systems are required to protect the food supply.  

NFN: While the government has some online tools in place they appear inadequate to the task of quickly providing retailers the information they need to squelch public fears. In April the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Assoc. and GS1 US announced an online portal to provide rapid and secure communication of standard recall information. Your own company, working with FoodLogiQ is creating a National Food Safety system. Are these systems competitive or complementary?

Tom Furr: The NFSS is an open system that can handle any audit checklist or standard and can be used to schedule and complete audits with any audit company and is completely integrated with product traceability.Open systems lead to competition between service providers and ultimately lower costs for all members of the food supply chain. The system Smart Online co-developed with FoodLogiQ is, by design, intended to enable the process of producing safer food – not simply reporting on recalls after the fact.

NFN: How will Smart Online finance its venture? Is this a subscription service? When will it be available to retailers?

Tom Furr: Smart Online develops private label software for the small business market.  In this particular instance, FoodLogiQ is the brand users see at www.FoodLogiQ.com. Smart Online provides the underlying technology for the Audit, Lab Test and Business centers.The service is offered to FoodLogiQ’s new and existing traceability customers at a nominal monthly fee, a subscription based on the number of users per account. Generally, the fee is $50/month for the first five users for food processors. We see some of that fee via a revenue-sharing arrangement. As we’re focusing on the farm-to-processor portion of the information chain, this system will ultimately be integrated with retailers interesting in implementing food safety systems for their suppliers.