Professor Hurburgh Discusses Bioterror Implication
2006 1월12일
The greatly respected Professor Charles Hurburgh Iowa State University professor of agricultural and biological engineering will chair the second day of the conference Food traceability Dallas Feb 1-2 www.trackingfood.com and give one of the presentations. In June, the FDA will start enforcing the new bioterror law related to record keeping of food products. Prof Hurburgh notes that both human and animal feed are classified as food under the law. Record must be kept for both under this law.
"It is time to start thinking about this," he said at the recent Integrated Crop Management Conference. Bulk grain elevators are of concern to the FDA.
He expects elevators to be among the first inspected because the FDA knows food processors and food companies can follow the paper trail.
Evidence of this is how food companies can issue a food recall, he said.
Under the FDA inspections or audits, they will likely look at ways to trace grain to where they got it. That could mean back to an individual farmer or a certain load.
HURBURGH SAID farmers are exempt from the law. Other exemptions are meat, poultry and eggs handled by the USDA.
"It is unclear how the FDA will look at scale tickets," he said.
In the meantime, there are procedures for grain elevators to prepare for enforcement of the law. Some suggestions include putting the initial bin assignment on scale tickets, date and time stamp scale tickets, record date and time of in-house transfers, and record load-out information, such as time to fill and percent gate openings.
Hurburgh said the recording the initial bin assignment could eliminate half to two-thirds of the bulk grain to help determine where it came from if they had to trace a problem. After the first audits, the practice with the best traceability standard will likely become the industry standard. In addition, Hurburgh suggests elevators develop a flow chart and written procedures of their operations. While the suggestions are made because of the bioterror law, he said the process could help elevators improve their efficiency. A flow chart and written procedures could help a company see overlaps of steps in their chain.
Hurburgh has been working with F.C. Stone, a Des Moines-based commodity trading company, on details of implementing a new law. They ran a mock recall to test their traceability system. Under the trial recall, Hurburgh took information of grain loaded onto train cars. They were able to trace the grain to 10 farmers.
Food Traceability 2006 conference will be held on February 1-2 2006 in Dallas, USA. This hot topic is driven by health scares, bioterrorism and new laws. It will become the largest RFID application but we cover DNA and many other vital technologies as well. For further details please visit www.trackingfood.com 
You can also read the new IDTechEx reports: