While the Food Safety Modernization Act doesn’t require transparency, it encourages it, but equally important for food manufacturers, consumers are increasingly demanding traceability. “Companies are under pressure from consumers, as trust is the lowest it’s ever been,” said John Keogh, president and principal advisor, Shantalla Inc., Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. “Trust can be lost at the click of a mouse due to online conversations.” In the age of social media, food manufacturers have to be doubly cognizant of how their brands are perceived by consumers. Because today’s ground meat filler is tomorrow’s pink slime. “Consumers want transparency on labels more than anything else,” said Dr. David Acheson, former chief medical officer for both the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). “What are they eating; where are these ingredients coming from? In the future, consumers may want insight into the manufacturing process, as well.” Acheson, who is in the private sector now as CEO of the consulting firm The Acheson Group, had an agency-wide leadership role at the Food and Drug Administration when the 2007 Food Protection Plan was in development. He served as assistant and associate FDA commissioner for foods during that time, with the 2007 plan later serving as the basis for many of the authorities granted to FDA by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). “Effectively, FSMA is encouraging manufacturers to get insight into their supply chain risks, and whether or not they are being controlled,” Acheson said recently. “An on site, third party needs to be reviewing and testing these programs.” The equation is complicated enough for single-ingredient, non-processed foods such as fresh produce commodities. When multiple ingredients from multiple processing plants are added, meeting consumer demands for transparency and FSMA requirements for documentation of preventive controls are dramatically more complex. Software solutions are emerging to facilitate more trust amongst all members of the supply chain, from consumers to retailers to suppliers, while helping manufacturers meet new requirements under FSMA. Managing data Certainly, one of the biggest challenges for food companies is managing data, Acheson said.