Fera Science has partnered with Global ID Group to launch its food safety and integrity tracking system in five new regions.
The system, HorizonScan, allows food manufacturers to track and monitor a range of contaminant and authenticity supplier issues.
Fera said that the partnership will enable North American, German, Brazilian and Mexican companies to access the system for the first time.
The system collects detailed information throughout a year from more than 70 national inspection agencies, involving over 490 food commodities from 180 countries.
Fera Science’s Dr Miles Thomas said: “The system provides a vital snapshot of food safety and integrity issues currently impacting the global supply chain, allowing the industry and other stakeholders to track and react to issues in real time, as they emerge.
“The new partnership with Global ID Group allows companies in these new territories to access the database, ensuring that this vital data is available to as much of the industry as possible.”
The system, which will be updated daily, comes with more than 63,000 incidents archived over the last 15 years.
It showed that nuts, nut products and seeds saw the highest increase in food integrity issues in the first quarter of this year compared to the corresponding period last year.
HorizonScan data also showed a 12.8% increase in reported problems with poultry and poultry products.
Global ID’s vice president of business development and product manager for HorizonScan Ron Stakland said: “HorizonScan gives food safety managers a powerful new risk assessment tool. It gives subscribers a way to “scan the horizon” of the global food commodity landscape, enhancing their ability to identify and avoid potential hazards.”