In January of this year, Anvisa (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency) ordered the suspension of the sale of several batches of an infant formula after identifying a risk of contamination by cereulide, a toxin produced by the bacterium Bacillus cereus. This measure was part of a global recall initiated by the company after the problem was traced to an ingredient supplied by an international supplier and used in products manufactured in the Netherlands. This episode illustrates one of the greatest challenges to food safety in the 21st century: in global production chains, a problem identified in a single ingredient can trigger simultaneous recalls in several countries, mobilizing manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and distribution networks. But recalls are not always caused by microbiological contamination. According to data presented during the USP Food Safety Forum, held on June 19th at the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (Esalq/USP) in Piracicaba (SP), with support from the Food Research Center (FoRC), the most frequent problems recorded in the United States and the European Union are related to labeling failures, especially the presence of undeclared allergens. Microbiological contamination and the presence of foreign materials, such as fragments of metal, plastic, or glass, follow. For Caio César Pacheco Carvalho, president of the Brazilian Association for Food Protection (BRAFP), this scenario demands a profound change in how the industry approaches food safety. "Simply analyzing the final product is no longer sufficient to guarantee safety," he stated. According to Carvalho, the traditional model, based on identifying failures after they occur, is being replaced by systems that use data to anticipate risks. The proposal is to continuously monitor indicators throughout production to identify warning signs before a problem reaches the consumer. One of the examples presented was the microbiological monitoring of manufacturing environments. "If I focus only on Salmonella in the product, I can go months without finding anything, and when I do find it, the problem has already occurred. But if I monitor environmental indicators, such as enterobacteria, I can identify trends and act before the risk materializes," he explained.
The logic is simple: prevent instead of react.
The numbers help explain why this change became necessary. More than 600 million people fall ill annually from foodborne illnesses worldwide, resulting in approximately 420,000 deaths. In the United States alone, thousands of health alerts are registered each year, and millions of products are recalled from the market due to posing some type of risk to consumers. According to Carvalho, in addition to the increasing complexity of global supply chains, the sector faces new challenges. Production chains increasingly involve more suppliers, ingredients, countries, and processing stages. At the same time, emerging risks are arising associated with new ingredients and increasingly sophisticated forms of production. Added to this is the pressure for speed: consumers demand immediate product availability, while companies need to maintain operational efficiency and reduce costs. In this context, data analysis tools, artificial intelligence, and risk-based monitoring tend to play an increasingly important role. The goal is to transform large volumes of data into knowledge capable of guiding decisions, prioritizing resources, and directing preventive actions before failures occur that could potentially affect consumers or trigger recalls.
Food safety and competitiveness
According to Alexandre Novachi, director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the Brazilian Association of Food Industries (ABIA), another speaker at the event, food safety has ceased to be merely a sanitary requirement and has become a competitive advantage for the country. The food sector accounts for approximately 10% of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product, employs roughly the same proportion of the national workforce, and processes more than 60% of the country's agricultural production. "Brazil has become not only the world's breadbasket but also the world's supermarket," he stated. For Novachi, the presence of Brazilian food products in highly regulated markets is a result of the credibility built by the national sanitary system. "We are only the world's supermarket because we have a very well-established sanitary system," he said. The topic gains even more relevance in light of the progress of the Mercosur-European Union agreement. According to him, the treaty goes far beyond tariff reduction and tends to accelerate regulatory convergence on issues such as traceability, pesticide residues, microbiological contaminants, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. According to Novachi, the Mercosur-European Union agreement should be understood not only as a trade instrument, but also as a mechanism for regulatory transformation of food systems. In this context, the ability to meet increasingly stringent sanitary standards becomes fundamental to maintaining access to international markets. More than a regulatory obligation, food safety is now a requirement to sustain exports and preserve Brazil's position among the world's leading food suppliers. The USP Food Safety Forum was held by Esalq/USP and organized by Professor Daniele Maffei, from the institution's Department of Food Science and Technology and a researcher at FoRC. The event was part of the activities of the month in which World Food Safety Day is celebrated and brought together experts from academia, industry, and the public sector to discuss the main challenges and advances in food safety.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.