Australia is set to strengthen its food safety infrastructure with a digital food assurance system that will boost trade and build value of its agricultural exports.
This move is expected to reduce regulatory burdens, open up market opportunities and cut costs for food producers, thereby enhancing the nation's reputable food brand.
CSIRO's Trusted Agrifood Exports Mission is at the forefront of this digital transformation, collaborating with the government and industry to digitise and analyse data for stronger food safety assurances.
Food safety is going digital. ????For food producers, food safety compliance paperwork can be complicated and time-consuming. But when it comes to food safety and our international reputation, we can't cut corners.
Enter: a new digital ecosystem. https://t.co/JRFjj74XV6
— CSIRO (@CSIRO) January 24, 2024
Complex and costly regulations.
Dr Ryan McAllister, the mission's lead, emphasised the inefficiencies in the current system, which involves manual steps and duplicated reporting, hindering the growth of export value.
“The people who buy our Australian products love them. However, food producers and processors alike can feel burdened by complex and costly regulations.
“The current system to monitor food safety has many manual steps and duplication of reporting. It makes it difficult to scale to grow our export value.”
Interconnected food assurance system.
The CSIRO aims to create an interconnected food assurance system.
To do that, it's partnering with the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and engaging with state regulators to make it a reality.
“The system needs to ensure market access while offering assurance around a range of attributes. These include food safety, biosecurity and non-regulatory aspects such as quality, animal welfare, provenance and climate,” Ryan said.
The challenge is that compliance-related data collection is often paper-based and can be piecemeal.
“So, we’re developing a digital method that organises the relevant data and specific modules that manage and assess risks at critical points.”
This adds up to continuous assurance – using digital technology to collect and collate data and make it accessible to everyone who needs it from ‘paddock to plate’.