Can egg producers win the food safety race?

Egg producers need to remember that regulatory compliance is just the first step for a food safety program that pursues continuous improvement. Walmart executive says chicken producers are in a race between their companies’ ability to prevent foodborne illnesses and society’s ability to detect them. Big data tools are making it easier to detect consumer trends. Data from credit/debit card purchases and shopper loyalty programs provide a more accurate history of what consumers really purchased and where they were purchased. Information on social media posts and online search behavior is used to identify areas where foodborne illnesses may be trending up, and this can allow for pockets of illnesses in different states to be linked. All this means that foodborne illness outbreaks will be easier to detect and tie together.