There are many issues regarding food safety and the current methods and infrastructure in place to track food products through the journey from farm to store shelf are not sufficient. There is no standardized system for tracking food and many processors handle it differently. When there are issues with contamination, lengthy and resource intensive traceback investigations must occur. Some distributors keep records in closed databases or on paper meaning they are not readily accessible or publicly available. Frank Yiannas, Walmart VP of food safety, mentioned in an interview that after giving staff a randomly selected package of mangoes, it required almost a full seven days to trace them back to the source. In seven days, hundreds of thousands of people can be significantly harmed by a contaminated product.
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