MIAMISBURG, Ohio (July 28, 2020) – Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY), a leader in intelligent label solutions that bridge the physical and digital worlds, applauds the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) New Era of Smarter Food Safety, released earlier this month. Avery Dennison was one of the few technology companies present at the FDA’s public meeting on a New Era of Smarter Food Safety, which was held last fall to discuss the agency’s approach to the modernization of food safety, including the development of the Blueprint framework.
The company’s digital food technology solutions accomplish many of the goals outlined by the FDA – enabling traceability of products throughout the supply chain, locating recalled products in seconds, quickly identifying source of outbreaks, reducing food waste, and facilitating transparency with consumers – while removing the complexities of meeting government regulations and brand owner mandates.
The four pillars addressed in the FDA guidance align with Avery Dennison’s food technology solutions, as well as the company’s ongoing research and development efforts in the following areas:
- Tech-Enabled Traceability and Foodborne Outbreak Response
- Smarter Tools and Approaches for Prevention
- Adapting to New Business Models and Retail Food Safety Modernization
- Food Safety Culture
“We appreciate the opportunity to contribute our response to the FDA’s notice seeking comment on the its approach to the modernization of food safety, including development of the Blueprint for a New Era of Smarter Food Safety,” said Ryan Yost, vice president and general manager for the Printer Solutions Division of Avery Dennison. “We are pleased to see that FDA is focusing on technology-driven food safety modernization.”
The New Era of Smarter Food Safety represents a new approach to food safety, leveraging technology and other tools to create a safer and more digital, traceable food system. It seeks out simpler, more effective, and modern approaches and processes. A key objective is to bend the curve of foodborne illness in the United States by reducing the number of illnesses due to food safety compromises.
“Our company innovates cost-effective, multi-layered, yet intuitive, food supply chain solutions with the aim to reduce waste, increase efficiency, drive consumer transparency, traceability, and above all, ensure safety,” said Yost. “We are excited that this final blueprint outlines achievable goals to enhance traceability, improve predictive analytics, respond more rapidly to outbreaks, address new business models, reduce sources of contamination for food, and foster the development of stronger food safety cultures.”
Avery Dennison is at the forefront of global initiatives to modernize food safety. Its Freshmarx® suite of intelligent food industry solutions are built around smarter technology. One critical element for this program is data harmonization and data integrity. Freshmarx Connect drives this first mile automation in a scalable, affordable solution across any size supplier by providing a user-friendly way to get standardized, structured data onto products. In addition, to address traceability, the company utilizes tamper-resistant labels and RFID tagging solutions to give individual items unique digital identities enabling verifiable chain-of-custody data to be captured throughout the supply chain. Using this technology, Avery Dennison converts ordinary labels into passive sensors that do not require line of sight or massive infrastructure changes to read, making data capture automation simple.
“Intelligent label solutions integrate digital identities at the first mile to bridge the physical product to digital technologies, such as blockchain and predictive analytics, to provide a secure means for traceability and transparency throughout the entire supply chain,” said Julie Vargas, director, Global RFID Market Development, Food, at Avery Dennison. “These solutions capture and create the data that fuels intelligent automation.”
In his comments to the FDA, Yost explained that a direct digital connection between the consumer and the product can help establish a culture of food safety like never before. He also advised the FDA to mandate the use of interoperable standards for global unique identification and uniform baseline content to be physically and digitally tied to each food supply chain item.
“It’s essential to follow a standard such as the GS1 Digital Link Standard, which enables any smartphone to access a product’s unique digital identity, trusted product data, and product’s fitness for use through a secure web address via QR code or NFC tag,” said Jeanne Duckett, manager, Food Technology Solutions Design at Avery Dennison. “This technology helps brands connect with their consumers while building the food safety culture, communicating a limitless amount of safety, nutritional, allergen and other information to consumers.”
For more information on Avery Dennison food industry solutions, please visit www.freshmarx.com
