Big Food Is Opposing Radical Transparency in Food Traceability

Right now the Food Industry Association (FMI) is seeking to dismantle the Food Traceability Final Rule  and 14 years of bipartisan work to prevent unnecessary illness and deaths from foodborne disease. 

They are asking Congress to include language in the budget to accomplish this even though hundreds of major food producers, distributors and retailers (including Del Monte, Sysco, Walmart, Kroger, Target, Whole Foods, Chik-fil-A, BJs Wholesale) are testing and/or fully adopting a variety of cost-efficient technologies to help them meet the new standard. 

A report from last month said the problems with Foodborne Illness are increasing dramatically: hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food doubled in 2024 and recalls from Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli increased by 41%. These outbreaks, like the contaminated lunch meat that killed 10 people last fall, were solved too slowly or the root causes were never determined because of a lack of better food traceability.