Initiative to boost food safety in Malaysia

SOME 200 industry leaders from the food and beverage manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, hospitality, food handling, and pharmaceutical sectors met for the Rentokil Initial Malaysia event on food safety. Also in attendance, health Inspectors from the Ministry of Health (MOH), whose role is to ensure that the parties involved in food preparation for consumer consumption are well governed.

Under the theme "Innovating Supply Chain Risk Management Through Science and Technologies", the event gave experts from Rentokil Initial the opportunity to share innovations related to keeping food safe. Workshops were held at the Spice Convention Centre in Penang, Double Tree by Hilton in JB, and Le Meridien in Kuala Lumpur on the 21, 22, and 24 of August 2017 respectively.  

Food safety lapses happen everywhere in the world, and in 2016, a popular milk brand in Malaysia had to recall their product off the shelf when it was found to be contaminated with harmful bacteria. One of the biggest impacts in food contamination is how it affects consumers' health. In 2015 alone, 14,433 of food poisoning cases were reported in Malaysia. These illnesses can be fatal if not treated immediately. Unfortunately for Malaysians, food poisoning fatalities are more likely to happen in the country due to its hot weather. Scientific studies have shown that microbes such as bacteria, parasites or viruses multiply 10 times faster the moment food is exposed to heat.

Hence, it is crucial for key players in the food supply chain to understand how the employees' attitude, behavior, pest management and sanitation practices, including the maintenance of their premises and equipment, can affect the safety of food and prevent exposure to foodborne diseases.

Building trust

Market leader in pest management, Rentokil is in a position to help improve food trust in Malaysia. Through workshops and working in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Rentokil continues to educate key players in food processing, hotels and pharmaceutical industry on the strict compliance to the regulations and health standards to ensure food safety from farm to table. Food can be contaminated at any point of the production process, from harvesting of raw materials to processing, storage, distribution, transport and preparation to table.

Rentokil also recognizes the importance of science and technology integration with pest management. Scientific and biological research has been conducted to better understand the behavioral instinct of each pest to develop effective solutions and innovation to eliminate pest problems.

"The world population is going to reach 8.5 billion by year 2030, and due to globalized supply chain, food safety management has gotten more challenging than ever. Ensuring the supply of safe food products is extremely crucial to protect the public's health. This is why technology and data transparency are important to mitigate any potential food safety risk in the entire supply chain," said Carol Lam, the Managing Director of Rentokil Initial Malaysia.

Carol also added, "In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) has been the talk of the town on its potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate across the globe. The IoT is currently used most commonly in the food industry to track and trace the status of products through the entire supply chain. The other advantage of end-to-end food safety monitoring is, it enables various parties involved from farm to table to quickly identify points of origin if food contamination is discovered. Previously these investigations could have taken weeks or months to complete."

"At Rentokil Initial, this is something that our Innovations team has been working on over the years. With the right approach, this will ultimately help us to ensure that our customers take a much more proactive approach in managing food safety risks across the supply chains. Predicting likely sources of contamination and food-borne disease outbreaks, detecting food safety threats as they happen and implementing control measures before threats can spread. This will improve efficiencies and reduce losses throughout the supply chain. Most importantly, raising standards in food safety and security for consumers."

During the workshops, participants were given the opportunity to experience first-hand on how PestConnect functions, it is an online connected system, which provides continuous 24/7 monitoring, with rapid response and protection against pest, for example rodents. These connected devices automatically detect pest activities and send the data directly to myRentokil, the online reporting system that allows customers to stay on top of any potential risks at their site(s). Tens of thousands of Rentokil's customers are now able to access their myRentokil accounts for analysis and audit support.

New product launch

Rentokil also unveiled its Lumnia, the Insect Light Trap (ILT) with improved LED technology, which is proven effective to attract flies up to 150m2 because its UV light can transmit 40% further with LED strips compared to standard tubes. Lumnia delivers an average of 61% in energy savings, when compared to similar products.

Juliana Soo, Regional Technical Director of Rentokil Initial, said at the event: "As devices become more connected to transmit and receive data, we hope that our sharing on the importance of data insights and Internet of Things (IoT) allow the key industry leaders to understand the importance of big data in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for effective supply chain pest risk management."

She added, "These innovative technological systems are able to deliver new data insights that enable businesses to identify trends and hotspot areas. It can also provide a real solution to help mitigate risk in the increasingly complex modern supply chains. It is a more proactive approach towards food safety that helps organisations throughout its supply chain risk management."

"We are always on the lookout to improve the quality in Malaysian food industry. With today's technology, it gives us better understanding of how these pests behave through biological research. Instead of always enforcing strict legislation to these decision makers, we are changing our approach and are very excited to work with Rentokil in educating and create awareness amongst the auditors and food industry on the existing food safety compliances,"said Jamilah Binti Salikin, Principal Assistant Director, Pre-Market Approval Branch, Food Safety and Quality Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia.