The role of technology in food safety

The food industry faces enormous pressure to ensure the provision of safe, high-quality food in the face of a rising global population and increasing legislation. As supply chains become more global, food safety programmes become more complex and difficult to manage.

At Rentokil Initial, we believe that innovative technology and data combined with subject matter expertise plays a key role in assuring food safety.

Our connected solutions, like PestConnect, are already providing valuable data insights to support businesses with risk mitigation and audit compliance.

Rentokil Initial's recent collaboration with global partners Google & PA Consulting Group, leveraging their expertise in the Internet of Things and the Cloud Platform technology has helped us to develop the next generation pest control services. This demonstrates our commitment to supporting food businesses run safely and effectively.

The effective use of technology provides a real opportunity to significantly reduce, and avoid, the financial loss incurred as a result of contaminated products, product recalls and lost reputation originating from a pest infestation or poor hand hygiene practice.

The Internet of Things is one of the most hyped phrases in modern science. But this is not hype without some substance. Gartner forecasts that by 2020, connected things would reach 20.8 billion.

At Rentokil Initial we are already recording and codifying the outputs from thousands of connected devices. Combined with our data on observations/recommendations from pest service visits to our customer sites (recorded in our pest reporting and analysis system, myRentokil), as well as data from other public sources of information, we are generating valuable new insights on global food safety.

"Now is the time for the food industry to use technology to get the basics right, with a conscious and proactive commitment to implementing effective prerequisite programs systematically across the entire supply chain."

For businesses, connected devices represent:

• 24/7 assurance
• remote wireless monitoring for whole facilities
• evidence of compliance and continuous improvement supporting food safety standards

Connected sensor based technologies

If businesses are able to monitor, measure, record and report on a wide range of environmental and behavioural conditions, these connected devices can help to trigger alerts if conditions fall outside of the prescribed boundaries.

Early detection by triggered alerts can enable fast corrective interventions, avoiding further risk along the supply chain.

Key insights from our report - based on data collected in 2015 from 51,000 sites in 27 countries that handle food stuffs - include:

Global pest risk activity in the food sector

• pest activity is recorded in nearly a quarter of sites involved in a food supply chain
• more than 50% of recorded pest incidents can be attributed to rodents.
• 65% of Rentokil recommendations regarding pest control are linked directly with housekeeping, hygiene management and assuring building integrity
• customer facing outlets (food retailers and restaurants) face less risk from pests than food producers