CHICAGO – The Institute of Food Technologists will officially launch the Global Food Traceability Center Sept. 11. The center will bring together key stakeholders in the farm-to-table food system to collaborate on product tracing solutions. IFT will host a live webcast to launch to the center.

"The Center will improve response time to foodborne outbreaks, reduce the scope of recalls, and conduct root-cause analysis to encourage efficient traceability practices, ultimately benefiting both companies and consumers," IFT said in a news release.


Webcast participants include:

• Janet Collins, CFS, President of the Institute of Food Technologists
• Jack Sinclair, Executive Vice President of the Grocery Division, Walmart
• Sherri McGarry, Foodborne Outbreak Coordinator on the Emergency Coordination and Response Staff in the Office of Compliance, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director of the Food Safety Program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Artavazd Hakobyan, with the Global Food Safety Partnership at the World Bank
• William Fisher, CFS, Vice President, Science & Policy Initiatives, Institute of Food Technologists