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Alchemy and USP Collaborate to Combat Food FraudAlchemy Systems and the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) today announced a groundbreaking collaboration that enables food companies of all sizes to assess supply chain risk and build robust systems to minimize food fraud. Food adulteration costs industry billions of dollars every year and has been connected to hundreds of illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths.1 Alchemy is the world's leading provider of food safety programs and is used at over 25,000 facilities in 50 countries. USP's Food Fraud Database is the most comprehensive source of information on food fraud risk for thousands of ingredients. "Food companies have struggled to keep up with food adulteration risks inherent in an increasingly global ingredient supply," said Jeff Eastman, Alchemy's CEO. "We are delighted to combine Alchemy's Food Fraud Risk Assessment and Mitigation services with USP's Food Fraud Database and food fraud expertise so that companies can better protect their supply chains, meet regulations, and safeguard their brands." USP's Food Fraud Database can be used to identify which ingredients have a known history of adulterations including incident reports, inference reports, surveillance records, and analytical methods. USP searches, compiles, and performs quality control checks on data gathered daily from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory and judicial records and trade associations from around the globe. USP's Food Fraud Mitigation Guidance provides a framework to assess ingredient vulnerability, the associated risk, and develop food fraud mitigation plans. "Founded in 1820, USP is a non-profit public health organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed and consumed worldwide," said Bill Folkets, VP of strategic marketing and program operations at USP. "Over the years, USP has established itself as a leader in setting food ingredients standards and developing tools to support industry and protect the public against food fraud. Our collaboration with Alchemy will help to enable food quality and safety professionals globally to quickly assess and mitigate food fraud risks." Alchemy works with food manufacturers following the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards including SQF, BRC, and FSC 22000 certifications which all require robust food fraud protections. "The Alchemy-USP collaboration will enable companies to prioritize fraud risks down to the ingredient level so they can protect their product and brand reputation," said Jeff Chilton, Alchemy's VP of professional services. The Alchemy-USP collaboration is being received with enthusiasm by food quality and safety professionals. "Protecting against food fraud is a major concern for companies dealing with global ingredient suppliers," says Wendy White, director of global food safety and quality at Golden State Foods - one of the largest diversified suppliers to the Quick Service Restaurant industry. "Alchemy and USP's new collaboration enables food companies to develop and execute sustainable food fraud prevention programs." Executives from Alchemy and USP will be at the upcoming GFSI conference in Houston to share their perspectives with conference attendees. To learn more, please contact Jeff Chilton at [email protected] or Bill Folkerts at [email protected]. About Alchemy Alchemy is the global leader in innovative solutions that help food and retail companies engage with their workforces to drive safety and productivity. More than two million frontline workers at 25,000 locations use Alchemy's tailored learning, communications, and performance programs to safeguard food, reduce workplace injuries, and improve operations. About USP The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a global health organization that improves lives through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. USP's standards are used worldwide. For more information about USP visit http://www.usp.org. Great graphics: Reference: 1 http://www.gmaonline.org/downloads/research-and-reports/consumerproductfraud.pdf View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170227005701/en/ |
