As of July 8, close to a thousand cases of salmonella poisoning have been reported in the United States and more than 130 people hospitalized throughout the country.  Safety officials are uncertain as to the cause of the outbreak. The initial focus was on tomatoes but jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and even some brands of salsa have also been cited as potential culprits.

The outbreak has brought attention to the role of the Food and Drug Administration in monitoring the nation’s food supply. The FDA Commissioner is being called upon to use his emergency powers to put in place a detailed tracking system to follow produce from the farm to the dinner table. Meanwhile, the FDA’s safety chief has urged corporate responsibility while lamenting that safety reports are still created using pen and paper.

The time has come for the agricultural sector to adopt widespread software tracking protocols in order to improve traceability. Some food producers already track their products. Most food producers place stickers on their fruits and vegetables. It might just be a question of adding additional information on the stickers to pinpoint where the produce originated and how it got to its ultimate destination. Every activity at every point in the supply chain needs to be captured electronically and stored in databases. This would make it a lot easier to create a clearer picture when safety issues arise.

An ideal situation would be similar to that of tracking parcels sent by couriers such as DHL or FedEx.  You enter a tracking number on a website and can immediately see the history of a product from its origin to its final destination.  This information should be made available not just to businesses and investigators but to the consumer as well.