Food is essential for every human or living creature on this planet. So much so that we can’t survive without giving the right nutrients to our body. A study even states that if we don’t get enough of the required nutrients, it can lead to obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, and many other health issues. Even our metabolic processes can slow down, which further leads to weight gain.
Owing to the importance of nutrient-rich food, most of us consume intelligently. However, while you can take full precaution from your end, have you ever wondered about the packaged food that you consume?
Where is it coming from?
Who is making it?
Which farmers are growing it?
What processing is being done on the food?
When it hits us, we thoroughly check the ingredients of the food and what it is made of. Although that should be enough to make a decision, it is often not. Various food violations can happen between fetching from the farmer to reaching the final customer. Sadly, even suppliers or manufacturers struggle to keep track of the food origin and supply chain. This is where big data analytics and the Internet of Things help food industry.
Let’s discuss this in detail for clear insights.
How IoT and Big Data can Transform Food Safety?
Traceability of Food Chain
You may have observed barcodes and RFID codes on most of the packed food products. These are the invention of IoT which helped retailers and manufacturers to check where the food came from and where it is going.
But, now, we have a more sophisticated application of IoT, which is sensors. These sensors can streamline the supply chain globally. You can know the dirt and dust particles, temperature, and other environmental condition of the place.
For example, if a product is going to the United States, you can adjust and process the food accordingly. It can also be judged in how many days a certain food will become unusable in specific weather conditions.
Detecting Food Violations
It is not possible to track down the food after it has been contaminated because it is humanly impossible to know the exact transport, processing, or touchpoint. Here, IoT and its tracking power can streamline the process. It can tell the investigators of the probable touchpoints of contaminations.
Power of Big Data
We have a lot of data available on the internet. All this data can be captured and evaluated to extract actionable insights. Needless to say, these insights can detect food safety loopholes, failure points, and predict the chances of food contamination. All this can certainly enhance the processing of the food supply chain.
Help to Farmers
One of the ignored advantages of big data is for farmers. Looking at the capabilities of data, we can predict the weather patterns. These environmental conditions and historical data, it is easier to know when there is a threat to crop and when it is the right time to harvest the crop. Knowing this information can encourage farmers to efficiently work as the spoilage will reduce and more crops will go in production.
Genetic Indexing
Bacterial growth in food is one of the most crucial factors for food contamination and other related illnesses occurring from food. While big data helps in finding the correlation between RNA and DNA of bacteria, IoT tracks where it came from. Using big data, the bacteria can be identified. IoT can assist in finding the environmental condition where a certain type of bacteria grows. Knowing this alone can help in stopping the growth and spread of the bacteria.
Coming Together
Many people become ill due to bad food everywhere. Streamlining the processing of supply chain of food can help in reducing this count. It can help consumers develop a level of trust in the food industry and the suppliers can offer safe food products to its users.