Rentokil Initial shared new insights at the 2018 GFSI Global Food Safety Conference

12 三月 2018

Each year, approximately 48 million people worldwide are affected by food-borne diseases. In the future, the food production required by the global population will increase significantly, which makes food more and more precious. At this moment, population growth, environmental change, technological innovation, and production optimization are all making it harder and more urgent to improve food safety, while more promising than the past.

[Population Growth] Facing urgent sustainable supply of food

At present, the global population is increasing by about 80 million people each year. It is estimated that by 2030, the global population will expand to 8.6 billion. By 2050, this population will require an increasing food production. According to statistics, there will be a lack of grain output as high as nearly 70% between that day requirement and today’s existing output.

However, at present, nearly one-third of the annual grain output (about 1.3 billion tons) is wasted due to various reasons such as poor management, pollution and pests. In the face of foreseeable food shortages, it’s urgent to improve food safety and promote the sustainability of food supply.

[Trade Globalization] Traceable and complex supply chain

Under trade globalization and constantly changing consumer demand, manufacturing and processing industries are turning to emerging economies to approach the growing consumers. Countries like China have become major food importers. The rise of e-commerce and the growing international trade cooperation have made food supply chain increasingly globalizing and made food safety traceability more complicated.

[48 million people per year] suffer from food-borne diseases

Increasing requirement for food demand and tight trade have put greater pressure on agriculture, production and supply chains, which ensures that it’s safe to product food to meet growing demand. Although the food safety situation in the entire industry has improved significantly, but according to the US Centers for Disease Control, there’re still about 48 million people affected by food-borne diseases every year. At the same time, WHO points out that food-borne diseases cause about 420,000 deaths each year, and nearly one third of them are children under 5 years of age. From the perspective of disease transmission itself, there are more than 200 diseases known to be transmitted through food.

Therefore, there is a long way to go to improve food safety in the prevention of "sickness from the mouth."

[Pest Risk Control of Supply Chain] is the Important role to ensure food safety

Food safety is regarded as an issue in the entire supply chain, and pest control in each link lies in top priority. Although there are many reasons for food contamination, pests are still one of the main reasons.

The United Nations points out that mice destroy more than 42 million tons of food each year ($3 billion). Rodents carry a variety of bacteria, viruses and parasites, which also pose a major threat to food safety. At the same time, with the increase in temperature, rain and humidity, weather changes have caused tropical and subtropical insects to migrate from the place where the infectious disease occurs to the area where the non-infectious disease occurs. By 2080, the number of fly species populations is expected to increase by 244%. Correspondingly fly-borne diseases will also increase at the same time, further affecting food production and safety.

From a global perspective, we have seen that at any time, up to 22% of facilities in the food industry have records of pest activity. Rentokil Initial study also shows that up to 60% of companies suffer performance losses each year due to stored product insect (SPI). When pests occur, enterprises will face with very serious consequences including food safety, performance revenue and public trust.

So, how can we improve this situation and more effectively manage the risk of pest control in the entire supply chain?
How to ensure problems including population growth, complex supply chains and expanding pest problems will not overwhelm the food industry and our food supply?

Global technology collaboration - Rentokil Initial shared new insights at the 2018 GFSI Global Food Safety Conference

On March 5-8, 2018, the GFSI Global Food Safety Conference was successfully held in Tokyo, Japan. During the period, as a consistent supporter and promoter of the GFSI Food Safety Agreement, Rentokil Initial cheered for food safety once again through the exhibition stand and speeches, providing new insights for the development direction of pest control in the food industry.

In the "GFSI and You" session sponsored by Rentokil Initial, Andy Ransom, President of Rentokil Initial Global, raised the advanced concept of leading technology of global collaborative management for the above-mentioned problems faced by food safety and pest control in the food industry.

In Rentokil Initial, we are moving towards digital management including the use of ServiceTrak. In the future, we can also foresee that from the IOT Internet of Things to big data analysis, from artificial intelligence to the hottest blockchain technology, the development of technology will creates more possibilities for datamation, visualization and Intellectualization of pest control, and cross-border collaboration. In the convergence of the latest technologies and global collaboration, there are still many things for PCO companies and food companies in various countries to do. And this will also help us make it possible to overcome the challenge.