World renowned food safety expert and former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA), Frank Yiannas, shared his thoughts on food safety challenges and data sharing in a May 28 post published in Food Safety News.

Yiannas wrote, “Solving new era food safety problems is extremely challenging and it will require new ways of thinking and working. It will require us, as a profession, to go beyond the traditional tools we’ve used, such as testing, inspections, and training. It will increasingly require data sharing.”

A key point made by Yiannas is that the biggest obstacle isn’t the technology itself but plain, old access to the data. The article illustrates the benefits of data sharing with real-world examples, such as GreenLink®, Western Growers’ data sharing platform, created to advance data-driven food safety. As noted by Yiannas, this approach is critical because “no single entity can be as smart as all of us working together when we’re sharing data.”

Western Growers announced last June the addition of Yiannas as an advisor to GreenLink®.