– OPINION –
By Benjamin Miller, Ph.D., MPH, EVP of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, the Acheson Group
After the implementation of Tuesday of a rate of 25 percent on products that enter the United States from Mexico and Canada, food safety professionals must prepare for stair -like effects in the supply chain. These rates create intersected challenges that require systematic attention.
Although it is inevitable that some buyers will move their purchases from American suppliers to avoid rates in ravaged countries, it is just as expected that many American food companies will move their purchase to domestic supply chains to save costs. And while those food companies leave expensive imports, domestic growers and manufacturers can experience the question peaks, creating a fundamental safety challenge when the production pressure increases faster than the food safety infrastructure.
Processing facilities that work further than designed capacity can jeopardize existing systems for the management of food safety. Rapid expansion of the workforce usually surpasses sufficient food safety training, which increases the risks for food safety, while quality assurance programs designed for standard production volumes are stretched considerably when production volumes increase considerably. Companies that expand domestic production must carry out extensive risk assessments before they increase capacity, with special attention to known or reasonably foreseeable dangers that can be affected by accelerated production schedules.
The economy of high -quality imported foods such as avocados, mangos, meat and special cheeses will fundamentally change under the tariff structure. When legitimate import channels become unaffordable, advanced black market activities that are specifically aimed at food supply chains. These activities show unique hazards for food safety, because products can be transported without temperature monitoring or verification; Traceability documentation is often forged, so that the power is eliminated to perform recall actions; And products can be “washed” via multiple intermediaries to the origin too obscure.
Product substitution perhaps represents the most direct economically motivated falsification (EMA) risk in this environment. When high -quality ingredients are confronted with a substantial rate, suppliers can replace a lower value alternatives without disclosure. For example, we can falsely be labeled conventional products to order premium prices that compensates for the tariff costs. Likewise, expensive oils such as extra virgin olive oil can be diluted with cheaper oils while retaining premium labeling and prices. Food companies will have to improve receiving processes specifically in order to identify possibly diverted products by improved documentation verification, approval processes for suppliers and possibly to implement laboratory tests to verify product authenticity and safety.
Companies confronted with margin compression are usually focused on operational efficiency that accidentally jeopardize food safety systems through extensive production runs between sanitary cycles that possibly enable the formation of biofilm and development of the harbor point, reduced preventive maintenance risks during production and reformulation of the production and reformulation of the production and reformulation of the production and reformulation of the production of the production and reformulation of the production of a production and reformulation of the production and reformuling a falling life and reformuling a falling life and reformuling a falling life and reformuling a falling life and reformuling a falling life and reformulation. require.
The redeployment of the Canadian supply chain can represent a more than temporary adjustment – it can reflect a fundamental restructuring of the North -American food trade that will have persistent effects, even if the rates are ultimately removed. New supplier relationships must be determined and a holistic assessment of food safety programs must be carried out as part of new supply identification and onboarding processes. Canadian companies can approach these changes as permanent structural adjustments that require extensive revisions for supplier verification programs rather than as temporary solutions. When preparing these challenges, companies must implement a structured approach with:
- Performing systematic vulnerability reviews of Supply Chains to identify specific points, causing tariff prints the risks for food safety.
- Development of improved verification processes for the specific risks of rapidly on board new suppliers.
- Rehabilitation of critical checkpoints under new operating conditions.
- Implementing targeted test programs for imported products with a high risk that may be subject to the Black Market diversion.
In these uncertain times, navigation requires specialized expertise that combines legal knowledge, technical assessment options and strategic planning through the complex intersection of international trade policy and food safety.
About the Acheson Group (Tag): Led by former FDA Associate Commissioner for Foods David Acheson, Tag is a global group for food safety and public health that helps companies to assess their unique situation, tackle lacunes and use best practices for operational, regulatory and reputation risk. For more information, go to Tag www.achesongroup.com Or call 800-401-2239