Dive Brief:
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The food safety testing marketing grew more than 7% to $9 billion last year, with continued growth predicted for the future, according to a new report from Global Market Insights.
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Industry growth has been fueled by stringent regulations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, which combat an increase of food borne illness outbreaks. The report also names food supply trade globalization as a key factor increasing cross-contamination levels.
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The high costs associated with different food safety diagnostic equipment and techniques could impact pricing for this industry going forward.
Dive Insight:
Food Safety Modernization Act compliance may create challenges for manufacturers, but as food safety testing technology becomes more cost-effective and accessible, producers have new ways to identify potential issues along their supply chains. This could prevent manufacturers from having to initiate recalls, which can generate significant savings by avoiding the financial and reputation costs involved in a recall.
Food safety testing is not only becoming more common, it's also becoming faster. The rapid technology market — which includes immunoassay, PCR-based techniques, ELISA, rapid culture detection and biosensors — is seeing increased adoption by manufacturers and food safety agencies. Faster detection means manufacturers and regulators can perform accurate recalls more rapidly, which could lead to fewer illnesses and fewer products having to be pulled from shelves.
But while the growth of the food safety testing market could mean the avoidance or minimization of recalls, it could also lead to an increase in the number of recalls. As testing becomes more accurate, new technologies may detect contamination that older systems may have missed. But if manufacturers routinely employ these testing technologies and fix the safety issues they detect along their supply chains, recall instances could decline over time.