--- title: "Food Safety Risk Management: Prioritize What Matters" description: Strengthen food safety risk management with connected data, AI-supported analysis, and smarter prioritization. See how FoodLogiQ helps teams focus. image: https://blog.trustwell.com/hubfs/Food%20Safety%20Quality%20Inspection%20in%20a%20Beverage%20Processing%20Facility.png --- [Skip to content](https://blog.trustwell.com/food-safety-risk-management-priorities#main-content) - Login - Support - Search [![Trustwelll\_logo\_2col\_pos\_RGB](https://blog.trustwell.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Trustwell%20Logos/Trustwelll_logo_2col_pos_RGB.png?width=250&name=Trustwelll_logo_2col_pos_RGB.png)](https://blog.trustwell.com/?hsLang=en) - [Platform](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/) - Use Cases - [Make Compliant Labels](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/make-compliant-labels/) - [Formulate Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/formulate-products/) - [Comply with Regulations](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/comply-with-regulations/) - [Track My Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/track-my-products/) - [Expedite Recalls](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/expedite-recalls/) - [Monitor Supply Chains](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/monitor-supply-chains/) - [Manage Quality](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/manage-quality/) - Industries - [Restaurants](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/restaurants/) - [Grocers + Retailers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/grocers-retailers/) - [Food Manufacturers + CPG](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/food-manufacturers-cpg/) - [Wholesale Food Distributors](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/wholesale-food-distributors/) - [Supplement Manufacturers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/supplement-manufacturers/) - [Growers, Packers + Shippers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/growers-packers-shippers/) - [Products](https://www.trustwell.com/products/) - [Genesis](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/) - [Food Formulation and Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/food-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Supplement Formulation and Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/supplement-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Request a Demo of Genesis](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/request-genesis-demo/) - [FoodLogiQ](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/) - [Compliance](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/compliance/) - [Quality Management](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/quality-management/) - [Traceability](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/traceability/) - [Recall](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/recall/) - [Request a Demo of FoodLogiQ](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/request-foodlogiq-demo/) - [Services](https://www.trustwell.com/services/) - Consulting Services - [Food Nutrition Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/food-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Supplement Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/supplement-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Menu Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/menu-consulting-services/) - [FSMA 204 Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/fsma-204-consulting/) - Software Support - [Training](https://www.trustwell.com/services/training/) - [Application Managed Services](https://www.trustwell.com/services/application-managed-services/) - [Implementation](https://www.trustwell.com/services/implementation/) - [Resources](https://www.trustwell.com/resources/) - [Blog](https://blog.trustwell.com) - [eBooks](https://www.trustwell.com/ebooks/) - [Infographics](https://www.trustwell.com/infographics/) - [Podcast](https://www.trustwell.com/podcasts/) - [Webinars](https://www.trustwell.com/webinars/) - [Why Trustwell](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/) - [Careers](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/careers/) - [Partners](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/partners/) - [Customer Stories](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/customer-stories/) - [News & Press](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/news-press/) - [Our Team](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/our-team/) [![Get Started](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/21653883/a490ce5f-57c2-483a-b8d1-0e4994f1c2f3.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/21653883/a490ce5f-57c2-483a-b8d1-0e4994f1c2f3) - [Platform](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/) - Use Cases - [Make Compliant Labels](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/make-compliant-labels/) - [Formulate Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/formulate-products/) - [Comply with Regulations](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/comply-with-regulations/) - [Track My Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/track-my-products/) - [Expedite Recalls](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/expedite-recalls/) - [Monitor Supply Chains](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/monitor-supply-chains/) - [Manage Quality](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/manage-quality/) - Industries - [Restaurants](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/restaurants/) - [Grocers + Retailers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/grocers-retailers/) - [Food Manufacturers + CPG](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/food-manufacturers-cpg/) - [Wholesale Food Distributors](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/wholesale-food-distributors/) - [Supplement Manufacturers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/supplement-manufacturers/) - [Growers, Packers + Shippers](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/growers-packers-shippers/) - [Products](https://www.trustwell.com/products/) - [Genesis](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/) - [Food Formulation and Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/food-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Supplement Formulation and Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/supplement-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Request a Demo of Genesis](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/request-genesis-demo/) - [FoodLogiQ](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/) - [Compliance](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/compliance/) - [Quality Management](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/quality-management/) - [Traceability](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/traceability/) - [Recall](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/recall/) - [Request a Demo of FoodLogiQ](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/request-foodlogiq-demo/) - [Services](https://www.trustwell.com/services/) - Consulting Services - [Food Nutrition Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/food-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Supplement Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/supplement-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Menu Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/menu-consulting-services/) - [FSMA 204 Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/fsma-204-consulting/) - Software Support - [Training](https://www.trustwell.com/services/training/) - [Application Managed Services](https://www.trustwell.com/services/application-managed-services/) - [Implementation](https://www.trustwell.com/services/implementation/) - [Resources](https://www.trustwell.com/resources/) - [Blog](https://blog.trustwell.com) - [eBooks](https://www.trustwell.com/ebooks/) - [Infographics](https://www.trustwell.com/infographics/) - [Podcast](https://www.trustwell.com/podcasts/) - [Webinars](https://www.trustwell.com/webinars/) - [Why Trustwell](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/) - [Careers](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/careers/) - [Partners](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/partners/) - [Customer Stories](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/customer-stories/) - [News & Press](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/news-press/) - [Our Team](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/our-team/) [![Get Started](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/21653883/a490ce5f-57c2-483a-b8d1-0e4994f1c2f3.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/21653883/a490ce5f-57c2-483a-b8d1-0e4994f1c2f3) October 29, 2026 # Focus Your Food Safety Team on the Risks That Matter Most Share [mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https://blog.trustwell.com/food-safety-risk-management-priorities](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https://blog.trustwell.com/food-safety-risk-management-priorities) Effective [food safety risk management](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/risk-management/)depends on connecting the right signals, understanding how they affect your supply chain, and recognizing which concerns deserve attention first. In our article on [**supply chain risk management signals**](https://blog.trustwell.com/supply-chain-risk-management-food-industry?hsLang=en), we discussed how a clearer understanding of risk starts with looking at the factors that influence exposure across suppliers, products, and locations. For food safety and quality assurance (FSQA) professionals, the challenge is deciding where to focus their limited time and resources. A supplier audit finding, emerging contamination concern, or regional disruption may each warrant investigation, but their potential impact can vary significantly. When teams lack a consistent way to evaluate these situations, determining what needs immediate attention becomes an additional burden. By connecting relevant data, applying consistent assessment criteria, and using AI-supported analysis to reduce manual research, food safety teams can make more informed decisions about where to focus their efforts. This approach helps organizations prioritize meaningful risks and gives experienced professionals more time to address the issues that matter most. ## When Everything Looks Urgent, Food Safety Risk Prioritization Matters More Than Ever Food safety and quality assurance professionals face a steady stream of information that demands their attention. Supplier audit findings, quality incidents, product recalls, and changing environmental conditions can all signal potential threats to the supply chain. Each deserves consideration, but determining which issues require immediate action can be difficult when teams are already managing full workloads. The challenge grows when information lives across spreadsheets, shared drives, supplier records, and disconnected systems. Before assessing the significance of a potential risk, teams may spend hours gathering documentation, reviewing historical incidents, and comparing information from multiple sources. By the time they have assembled a complete picture, conditions may have changed. FOOD INDUSTRY RISK TRENDS ## Food Safety Concerns Are Rising Share of surveyed food industry decision-makers identifying food safety and health as a top risk 29%   2024 45%   2026 ↗ **+16 percentage points** Source: [WTW, 2026 Global Food, Beverage & Agriculture Risk Report](https://www.wtwco.com/en-nl/insights/2026/07/global-food-beverage-and-agriculture-risk-report-2026) The importance of effective risk management is becoming more apparent across the industry. According to Willis Towers Watson's **[2026 Global Food, Beverage & Agriculture Risk Report](https://www.wtwco.com/en-nl/insights/2026/07/global-food-beverage-and-agriculture-risk-report-2026),** 45% of surveyed food industry decision-makers identified food safety and health as a top risk, compared with 29% in 2024. As these concerns gain attention, FSQA teams need a more consistent approach to determining which potential threats warrant immediate investigation and how best to allocate their resources. For food safety leaders, this creates a difficult balancing act. Investigating every potential concern with equal urgency can stretch resources thin, while overlooking an emerging threat could lead to serious consequences for consumers and the business. Effective food safety risk management helps teams navigate these competing priorities by providing a structured way to evaluate exposure and determine where attention can have the greatest impact. --- ## Identify the Food Safety Risks with the Greatest Impact A potential hazard becomes more meaningful when teams understand how it connects to their specific operations. The severity of a food safety concern matters, but so do the products involved, the likelihood of an incident, and the potential consequences for customers and supply chain continuity. Consider two suppliers experiencing quality-related concerns. One has a history of recurring audit findings involving a high-risk, ready-to-eat ingredient. The other has a single documentation discrepancy involving a lower-risk product. Both situations warrant review, but their relative urgency may differ substantially. To determine which situation warrants greater attention, FSQA teams must consider supplier performance, product characteristics, sourcing relationships, and previous incidents alongside the potential hazards involved. Together, these factors provide the context needed to assess the potential impact of each concern and establish appropriate priorities. The consequences of food safety incidents demonstrate why understanding potential exposure matters. According to the [**CDC's 2024 multistate outbreak summary**](https://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-outbreaks/php/data-research/summary-2024.html%20,) contaminated food was responsible for 29 solved multistate outbreaks involving 1,533 illnesses, 519 hospitalizations, and 19 deaths. These findings underscore the importance of evaluating hazards according to their potential severity and using that information to guide timely investigations and preventive action. ## Foodborne Outbreaks Have Serious Consequences 1,533 Illnesses 519 Hospitalizations 19 Deaths Reported across 29 solved multistate foodborne outbreaks in 2024. Source: [CDC, 2024 Multistate Outbreak Summary](https://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-outbreaks/php/data-research/summary-2024.html)   This is where a risk-based food safety approach becomes especially valuable. By evaluating risks within the context of the business, teams can develop priorities that reflect actual exposure rather than treating every identified concern as equally significant. ### Connect Risk Signals to the Products and Suppliers They Affect External events add another layer to the assessment process. Severe weather, transportation disruptions, foodborne illness outbreaks, and recalls can affect suppliers and products differently depending on their locations and supply chain relationships. For example, flooding in an agricultural region may create significant concerns for a company sourcing fresh produce from affected growers. Another business with suppliers outside the region may face little direct exposure. Although both businesses face the same external event, their potential exposure differs based on their sourcing relationships and locations. Connecting external signals with internal supplier, product, and location information helps teams identify which developments warrant closer investigation and direct resources toward the risks most relevant to their operations.. It also creates a foundation for more informed food supply chain risk management, allowing organizations to direct resources toward the risks most relevant to their operations. --- Hello, and thank you for joining us today for our supply chain management webinar, Tech Driven Supply Chain Management, Maximizing Supplier Communication, Onboarding, and Efficiency. Before we begin, we have some quick housekeeping notes to go over. Today's webinar is being recorded, and you'll receive a link to the recording as well as the slide deck within a few business days after the webinar. If you have any questions, you can place them in the q and a box below in the control panel. If we can't respond immediately during the webinar or if your question needs more research than the time allows, we'll do our best to follow-up with you directly. And please feel free to change your view settings in Zoom to maximize the presentation view. There'll be a brief survey at the end of the webinar, which will appear in your browser window when the webinar ends. If you could please take a moment to complete the survey, we always appreciate your feedback. And with that, I'll hand things over to Zoe to begin today. Thank you, Kristen. So hello, everyone. Pleasure to be with you, today. So I'm Zoe Richards, business solutions director at Trustwell. Prior to joining Tresswell, I had spent over twenty years in the food industry in food safety, quality, and commercial roles for global QSR brands such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, and retailers like Sainsbury's and HelloFresh. I'm gonna be co presenting this webinar today with our platform expert and guru, JP, and I will let him introduce himself. Over to you, JP. Thank you, Zoe. I'm also on the solution side. Over my career of twenty five years in supply chain, I've been able to work with probably about a hundred of the Fortune five hundred companies in the US on their supplier management, programs. So, that's involved in a lot of different industries, and I love bringing those best practices to something that we're all passionate about here at Trustwell, and that's the food industry. Thanks for joining me today, Zoe. I'm excited. Perfect. So in terms of our agenda then, what we're gonna share with you today is a little bit about Trustwell and what we do. And then JP and I are going to dive into some ideas and concepts which I found really helpful managing large and complex supply chains. And then JP is going to show you how we could put some of that theory into practice using our Trustwell Connect platform. We'll then open up the webinar for questions and then finish off by sharing some of our upcoming events with you. Great. So let's jump into it. So today's webinar is hosted by Trustwell. At Trustwell, our roots stretch back to the initial FDA pilots in twenty twelve. Led by the AFT, IFT, these pilots were put in place to explore and evaluate methods and appropriate technologies for rapid and effective tracking and tracing of foods. And our mission is simple. At Trustwell, we're always ahead by being first to market and always on top of regulatory requirements and industry shifts. We provide a connected platform allowing users to extend product development and nutritional analysis through to supplier compliance, enhanced traceability, and automated recall management. And then finally, we are focused on food with products built exclusively for the food industry. So what do we do? Well, we're connecting the food industry through technology. We connect thousands of suppliers, distributors, and food companies around the world, and we're tracking millions of data points every day, all in support of our mission to make the food supply chain safe, efficient, and transparent. And Trustwell Connect is the most comprehensive data driven software solution enabling product formulation, nutritional labeling, supply chain compliance, policy management, and that recall and traceability all in one platform. So the topic of today's webinar is focused on successful supplier management. And why is that so important? Well, at a time when consumer expectations are soaring and supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, it's crucial for businesses to act smarter, harness the power of data, and establish a blueprint for maintaining impeccable quality standards. And I believe and JP believe that we can do this by organizing our data better, leveraging automation to achieve this in a more robust and efficient way. And that's what we're gonna share with you today. Embracing customer demand opportunities can create transformational changes in a business, positioning it for sustained growth and competitive advantage. And by aligning those product offerings with evolving customer preferences, businesses can unlock new revenue streams and expand their market reach significantly. But just managing the products that you have today could be challenging. We meet a lot of businesses who struggle to scale systems when product portfolios expand or more requirements are put on them. And what can happen then is the formulation of data silos. And it's therefore incredibly important to maintain oversight of supplier and product performance, highlight any training gaps that you may have, and also glean any insights which may help to mitigate food safety risk. And then finally, the constant change of the regulatory and political landscape, which is putting huge pressure on the food companies to collect, collect, and report more and more. With FISMA two zero four just around the corner, robust approaches to traceability and mapping your supply chain is becoming not just a nice to do or perhaps a procurement tool for cost reduction, but it's also becoming essential for large, for legal compliance and mitigation of large company fines. Some of my recent experience in Europe is with the the German supply chain due diligence act, and this legislation has only been enforced for over a year. But those are companies it applies to. Legally, they must make reasonable efforts to ensure there's no human rights and environmental violations in their supply chains. And the war in Ukraine and Middle East, reduction in availability of workers all leads to constant pivots and crisis management needed to overcome the issues at hand. And, of course, all of this creates opportunity for criminals to step on and take advantage. Food crime is a significant threat to any food and drink business. And food fraud in particular accounts for up to twenty five percent of food safety incidents. Even when the issue is not one of food safety, food fraud can have a huge reputational and financial cost for those implicated businesses and brands, costing the global food and drink industry approximately thirty billion euros every year. And then finally, this is not a topic that anyone anyone is gonna be unfamiliar with, but climate change and the impact that is having. No rain, too much rain, record temperatures. The stress and strain on just the produce industry alone is unabating. And for retailers, constant product redevelopment, emergency supplier onboarding, and diversifying procurement strategies was a necessity and is an ongoing risk to manage. So how do you go on about tackling this ever evolving landscape of data with data? So anyone in the FSQA role will feel the pain of having so much data coming at you, it's almost impossible to use this to drive meaningful outcomes and insights. And my advice here is to map where your data is coming from. Prioritize these data sources and which of those are important to protect your customers and brand And which inputs do you need to effectively report either internally or externally? Maybe you're not reporting data to the business, but it's important still to map it out, organize it by priority, and assign a management process to codify what the data is telling you and where the thresholds are for action and when that must be taken. And as FSQA professionals, we are constantly asked if a new supplier is approved, an ingredient can be purchased, a new ingredient can be introduced, and how you do this with data how can you do this better with data and build the know how of your internal team so that the reputation of the food safety team is not naysayers, but actually intelligent risk managers who are willing to take those of the stakeholders on that journey with them to understand that potential impact. And data also avoids the doubt that can arise if it appears it might be someone's opinion. And lastly, I just wanna call out brand knowledge. You will have years of experience in your teams when you did things that went wrong, why they did that, and what you did to do what you did about it, and learning from other food businesses. So studying recall and withdrawal data and understanding the past will better prepare you for the future. So what's the first step in building your approach to food safety management? In Europe, the requirement is to manage and monitor risk for direct suppliers only, one up and one down. But being honest, the most severe risks are usually hidden deep down in the supply chain, and they're usually the ones cost companies must keep an eye on. The Trustworld Connect platform is based on GS1 standards. And when you have all your locations marked with GLINs and all your products labeled with GTINs, tracking and tracing and mapping of a particular product's movements can be as easy as a click of a button. And those companies who lack the knowledge of where their high risk ingredients come from not only risk serious reputational concerns, but o also pose greater legal risks as more and stronger regulations are being introduced. So when you have thousands of ingredients and limited resources, and those resources have varying degrees of experience and understanding. What can you do to codify an approach to managing ingredient food safety in your suppliers? And I've always been incredibly passionate about creating dynamic food safety risk assessment tools. They can transcend culture and language barriers and also allow a business to operate consistently with a repeatable model for future growth. Introducing a dynamic risk assessment reduces the chances of focus that may have been on something that that could could have a low risk of occurrence or and that may have been an issue five years ago, but also avoids completely missing something which could cause a food illness or a recall scenario tomorrow. The greatest challenge with creating a dynamic risk assessment is that typically, as I've mentioned, those that that data could be in silos. And bringing all this data together to help give you a live read on the health of your supply chain is incredibly powerful and can be done with a platform such as Trustwell Connects or API links to existing platforms that you may have. And we always say no two suppliers are equal. For example, you may have a cheese supplier who spends millions of pounds on innovation, on training and keeping their factory to a certain level of fabrication. And you may have another cheese supplier who invests very little. And you wouldn't you'd wanna understand this. And this is something that you can start to tease out using, Dynamics supplier self assessment questionnaires and leveraging, the automated assessments in the platform. And JP, is gonna show us that shortly. But what I've created in the past is is something which allows you to, collect information that doesn't repeat a geophysile audit that typically assessments would create, but starts to poke into different areas, allowing for greater focus on on those risks. And then you can overlay that with various internal and external data sources such as horizon scanning, industry reports, and quality assessments. So once you've once you've layered in as much as you can into this model, it would then kick out a food safety risk assessment score. So one to three or a high, medium, and low. And JP is gonna show you how you can create some of that segmentation in the platform as well. But that allows you to have a consistent model for you, your FSQA teams to follow, in various different markets and globally depending on where you're operating. And now, obviously, we we don't have a crystal ball, and and we can't avoid everything. But what a muzzle like that could give you is a robust and defensible position of due diligence, has been taken. So now moving on to quality, how do you deploy, a similar approach to managing policy in your organization? Well, in the big QSR brands that I've worked for, identifying those ingredients which mean the most to your business and customers is where you should be spending the majority of your time. And by codifying this risk assessment similar to our food safety one, you can ensure you're always applying focus where it's needed. So there's three questions you should be asking yourself. Which ingredients make mean the most to my business? And let's let let's take my example, of my QSR experience. This your your a supplier might be, a chicken supplier. So your chicken is obviously very important to your business, and you'd wanna make sure that you're managing that policy and really zoning in on what your consistency looks like. For McDonald's, it might be beef patty patties and buns. And then in your b section, for instance, you might have ingredients which cause, sorry, go you have ingredients that cause the most complaints. So this could be a dynamic attribute set, category threshold to identify your acceptable limits. And and customer feedback is also really important here to better understand what's happening and if those improvements, that you're making are having an impact. And then finally, which ingredient categories do you spend the most money procure procuring? So the output from this exercise is gonna give you that quality risk profile, which you can see on the right hand side here. And then that will be used to identify the approach you'd wanna take to manage the quality of that product. And this could be anything from extensive quality specifications, frequent inbound quality checks and surveillance. And certainly in my experience, I found risk assessing quality in this way incredibly powerful is because you can't monitor thousands of ingredients all day, every day. But if something was to go wrong, if we did have a quality issue that, emerged, we were able to provide the business with a solid reason why you weren't looking at that in that particular moment, but use these tools to pivot quickly and start to address the issue effectively. Let's with that, let's jump into the platform a little bit, and, we'll we'll start looking at some of these things that Zoe's been talking about. You know, how do you go about putting this segmentation into practice? How do you go about analyzing your suppliers and collecting, like Zoe said, the right information from the right supplier at the right time? If you're trying to put the same level of focus and effort on your entire supply base, it's very difficult to keep your head above the water in in that case. Even with the platform, I'd say. So while I do love our platform and what the in the software delivers to the industry, Let's be honest. There's a lot of complexity and a lot of documentation. So let's be as smart as, about this and be strategic where we can. So in this example, and I'm glad you used poultry Zoey. I'll go ahead and follow on with that example. Let's go on our suppliers. And here's Jackson Poultry, a recent supplier to our organization. And we're gonna go in with, this supplier, and we're gonna start by, doing an assessment on this supplier. So as a first step, let's go ahead and start doing that segmentation risk assessment. So within the platform here, I've gone ahead and built out something that mirrors a little bit about where you're talking about with those three levels of strategic, important, transactional, and given some guidance. So additional guidance and instructions can be given to your team members that would be filling out this assessment. And you could start answering those questions about, you know, what are they providing to you? You know, what commodities are they providing? Do you know anything about their history? A lot of times, I add include questions that may be pertinent down the road as I don't believe this should be a one time assessment. You wanna revisit this, stratification or segmentation of your suppliers on an ongoing basis. But being able to ask questions around, you know, their solvency and how likely or unlikely are they to, go into financial trouble or, to have a a supply chain disruption. Putting notes and things, there are other sources of data that I like to incorporate into this and other artifacts that I'm sure you're using as an organization. So bringing those together, putting those notes in as justification for how you're responding to some of these questions is always valuable because this will be available to your other team members in that supplier's file. Like Zoe said, is it difficult to switch from, this supplier to another supplier? How unique is our product? And if something were to go wrong, you this last question here, how much impact does it have on our customer retention, on our service, on our business? Obviously, the more impact it would have. If it's little, then that's fine. If it's moderate, we understand we might score that a little bit differently. If significant, then you see I've even highlighted that as as a warning to draw my eyes and attention to that. Same thing here maybe for the regulatory compliance. If their, obligations have a lot to do with our quality there and it's significant, that may be a warning as well. You could see where this is driving. This will probably be in that, higher category of the strategic supplier that we wanna manage closely. So I'll go ahead and submit that. We could see the the final score, the results. We could see the number of warnings. There's a lot of information there that goes ahead and categorizes the supplier into that category. So what do we do then? How do we manage the supplier differently based on knowing this information? So going back to that supplier record, what we can do is we can put them into a location and product group that is, aligned with that. So I'm gonna go ahead and put them into a high risk or strategic group, and then, of course, they are in that meat and poultry. So just because everybody all my strategic suppliers go into a same bucket, doesn't mean that they're still all the same. Based on commodity type, there may be some differences in information that we've decided that allows us to manage those risks more tightly. So I may manage my produce risks different than I manage my poultry risks even though they're both in that strategic segmentation or that higher risk segmentation. So by putting the supplier into that segmentation, a few things will start happening. And I'm gonna go into my supplier profile to show you what I mean by that. So within the Trustwell platform, the suppliers do have a portal. They have a login area. There's a means for them to respond and self-service a lot of this information. So we see that based on their segmentation, a facility audit's been scheduled. We're asking them to fill out a detailed safety assessment in that meat and poultry, and there's other things that are required. Now these requirements are configurable, and they're gonna be different. But it, again, is back to collecting that right information from the right supplier at the right time. And it's not just at the supplier level. There's requirements at the product level or the location level. So I'm gonna go into the product level, and I'm gonna add a new product as a supplier. And I'm gonna quickly fill out a few fields. You notice only a few have the asterisk. That's for, the ability for us to all get through this quickly in the demo environment. But, obviously, as the supplier providing this information, I would like them to fill out more of this information. So I'm gonna have them all as required, according to plan. So depending on what claims a supplier makes, depending on what they do, and information about the product. There could be more information that you need from that supplier. So as we go in here, we can see how this will then extend their to do list. And you saw before, maybe there were six items. They made our Red Tractor Assurance claim on their products. We want that certificate. And because of the risk segmentation, every product that they share with us, we want them to start doing, assessments, and we'll talk about that a little bit later. So suffice it to say, there's a strong way of being able to perform that segmentation exercise to manage the supplier's compliance information in their appropriate level based on how that risk came out and really be well on your way to that first c of compliance. With that, Zoe, let's go back into the slides and talk a little bit about the next c, which is collaboration. Brilliant. Thank you, JP. Absolutely. So one of the things that I personally haven't seen done particularly well anywhere that I've worked, and we certainly hear this a lot in industry is effective communication and collaboration, both internally with their own organizations and and their stakeholders and departments or their supply partners and or customers. And certainly when I was at HelloFresh, I spent hours every day talking about what I'd done, what I was going to do, and sometimes what I hadn't done. What a waste of time that probably is. I mean, here on the slide, you you you might sort of recognize some of this in terms of how you might segment some of your time on certain activities. And alongside all of those activities, there's a level of administration. There's a level of project management. And even though the percentages may vary for for each individual in each different, organization. I think what is true is that we have struggled as an industry to really harness technology for communication and collaboration. And, certainly, my experience of opening up an Excel document, starting a new project plan, sending really important information on Teams, Chaps, and Slacks. You know, that that's really, helpful in the moment because it gets gets stuff done. But what it doesn't do is it doesn't collect all of that information into one place. It doesn't allow for people to go in and see where a project is at or what's missing or involve external stakeholders into that into that process as well. So what happens next? Maybe have a supplier who who needs to be onboarded and you need certain information from from or a quality issue you need to investigate. And and and a lot of the time, as I say, you're you're sat in meetings talking about, certainly certain instances and and probably spending a good hour, just giving everyone an update. But, actually, imagine moving into an exception only discussion where you're only talking about the things that need to be escalated or change or, of course, that needs to be discussed. You'll see there too managing supplier performance reviews. How long does this take in for you to compile? Do you have to liaise with multiple different departments and stakeholders just to get that information every time? And is that in piecemeal per supplier, or how do you download some of that information that you need? So imagine clicking a button and getting everything that you need to know instantly. And with that, I'm gonna hand over to JP. He's gonna show you what the art of the possible is inside our platform for for workflows and our new supplier scorecards. Thank you, Zoe. Yeah. So taking a few cues, new product development, issue management, and then as Zoe mentioned, scorecard. Just dive into the platform. We wanna make sure that these are all activities that you're able to, digitize, to bring efficiency to, and to be able to focus on. The more automated we can make that compliance part of the puzzle, the more strategic your role can be in giving you time to not just be a supplier admin, but a supplier manager and really focus your time on those activities. So whether it is a workflow, like Zoe mentioned, of going in and working on, you know, new product, innovation. So we see product innovation here, and there could be, you know, here with Jackson Poultry. Let's say that we wanna work on some product innovation with them, and we wanna go in and have a detailed workflow that includes team members external, internally within our own organization, as well as going out to the supplier and getting some collaboration there, with them. So whether it's internal tasks like competitive research and some other things that you're gonna be looking at in this new product innovation are going out with the supplier, asking them to fill out some information, some spec information, some details, and collaborating to bring that to through to your fruition, being able to assign due dates, have roles, and being able to see exactly where you're at in one of these projects. If I close out and go to another one, I can see, you know, some some progress checks where different steps are complete. When were they completed? What's the next step? Who owns that step? And being able to see all that through the process. So those you know, whether it's product innovation or other activities, being able to have a workflow and being able to organize that activity is, is actually viable and it's possible within platforms like the Trustwell platform. Then going in and, you know, we've collected the information with the supplier. We've onboarded a new product, and they start shipping that product. We'd like it to be a perfect supply chain, but we know that that's not always the case, and sometimes there are quality incidents that come up. So that's part of that collaboration. While nobody wants a quality incident, that's how we make the supply chain better. That's how the supplier gets better, and that's how your deliverables to your customers get better. So being able to report on those incidents, I love going into the mobile app to report on these. Love to spend some time with you showing you some, broad examples of how we can go in and do a lot of different investigations, and incidents. But let's just jump in real quickly, to another poultry supplier that we've been working with for a while and go into one of the events that have been submitted in the past. And we could see that very rich information be can be collected on the supplier, the product, the individual lot number. You know, is replenishment needed? What was the out of spec? In this case, it was just a label. It wasn't scanning, and this could be very, you know, important to your traceability initiatives. And, certainly, if it's a FISMA two zero four, as we look into that, labels are gonna start becoming more and more important in that information sharing. So whether it's a foreign object or even labeling, we'd like to know that we can improve the supply chain. So what does this do? Well, Oliver submitted the issue, then it went to an internal, maybe team member. Maybe Oliver was in the field, and then it routed there. And then we could see it went directly to the supplier for them to start taking action, and it was complete with pictures of what is the incident, what is that label. In this case, it wasn't scannable, was a product. If it was a foreign object, that would be there as well. And the appropriate actions can be taken, whether those are, credit request or those real corrective actions, corrective and preventative actions, and how can you not just monetarily gain from making sure that the bottom line is not being affected by incidents, but that you are improving the supply chain by corrective actions that get filled out in the platform and get routed back to you for your review and your approval of those, corrective actions. So, just one more thing on the incident side. What we do notice is that, yes, there will be different spikes in your incidents. And when you implement a platform like ours, you may see an increase in, you know, annual incidents reported, but we normally see those start to go down because this collaboration cycle is effective. It does work, and it does result in a smoother, stronger supply chain. So that collaboration is really important. Another topic that I wanted to talk to on collaboration is when's the last time you've had a new regulatory requirement or a customer request that drove you having to collect more information from your suppliers? The time that that takes to onboard the supplier the first time, and then you say, now I need more information or new information, That's easily handled in a platform. I'm probably not gonna, dive in real deeply to show it today, but just at a high level, if there's a new piece of product information, I can go into the exact product type that's affected, go into those attributes of data that I'm collecting on that product type, select that new attribute, put it into the platform, add it in as a new attribute. And if there's a new document that's required as a result of how they respond, let's say it's something around a, a certification that somebody's making a new claim that you're tracking, and you wanna say, well, if they make that claim, then I want the documents. Having the ability to put in the documents like this non GMO certificate and say that's required, but it's only required based on those that can make that claim based on due. So it's a required document if they made the non GMO, claim to BS. And you could see how that's easily set up in the system. Now what happens from there, whether it's that new field of information, that new document that you need to collect, all your suppliers that are a match for that information or that would need to provide that now new attribute, they'll be automatically notified. It'll show up in that to do list that I showed earlier going back in the supplier's profile. They have this to do list on their home page. They're getting emails on an ongoing basis. So that collaboration becomes smooth with that supplier. They go into a cadence of knowing that your requests are gonna come through a single platform and a single methodology, whether it is new product innovation, whether it is compliance data, new regulatory information. They're in that rhythm with you, and they know exactly where to go to find it. In this case, in the Trustwell platform, it's all on their landing page, and it's very nicely organized. And so things aren't taking long because they're falling through the cracks, and they're missing those requests for information. So that collaboration provides a real strength. And then I wanna jump over to the other, topic that Zoe mentioned of scorecard. So we're excited about this. Scorecarding is something that, within your organization, maybe you're doing a good job of. Most companies, as I mentioned, all those even those Fortune five hundred companies that I've had the pleasure of working with, some of them did a very good job at scorecarding. A lot of them, it was on their their goals list, and it was something that they haven't been able to effectively roll out. Well, with our spring release that's, going live this month, scorecarding is now available within the platform. So going into a, supplier, and I'm just gonna cover the highlights. If you wanna get involved more, please follow-up with this. We'd love to show you more about the scorecarding. But let's go in with keeping on the poultry, comments here. Let's go in with one of our suppliers. I could see their current score in the scorecard. I could see a full relationship map of my business with this supplier, how they're doing from a compliance perspective. But even more, I could start scoring that information and and score it break it down into categories. You see these different colors? Each one's layering in a different component that I can define, and I've chosen to broke this, down into safety, quality, sustainability, and sentiment. And there's different elements that are automatically calculated from within the platform that are resulting in these scores. So I see from a a quality's perspective that I do have an expired document. It's a particular document that I is important to our business. So the longer that this document goes expired, the more this score is gonna drop. Now does that mean I have to go back in and update the scorecard? No. It's auto refreshing, auto calculating, and giving you a current score on an ongoing basis. So we're refactoring. It's a live dynamic scorecard with your data elements depending on that segmentation, depending on which document types, audit types, which that quality incident I showed a moment ago, that quality incident can go in and be a part of, hey. We have an an incident that's either how many incidents have we had, or have they taken action improve, supply that corrective action, Or is it overdue because we do have timelines enforced and due dates on those quality incidents? So all that can be built into a scorecard, measured, auto refactored, and you'll start seeing a metric of is their score going up or down and be able to view that across all your suppliers or individually like I'm showing here. So we're thrilled to be able to bring this, you know, tech driven supplier management functionality, to you and to the industry. With that, Zoe, I'll, go back to you to talk a little bit about our final c, which is confidence. Brilliant. Thanks, JP. And how beautiful does that look? And I also think just reflecting on what you were saying about documents, in my experience as well, a lot of the time, communication is one way. Being able to send, a document out to your suppliers at any point for them to review and to, to agree to is is really powerful stuff. And thinking about the German supply chain act that I was helping HelloFresh with, sending out an ethical trading policy to, a segment of your supply chain, you know, being able to digitalize that and automate that and record their responses was something that we couldn't do at the time. So it's great to see that you can keep that, you know, that document and request list up to date, and it would definitely help with confidence and compliance. So lastly, as you say, confidence. So having those regular touch points with your suppliers who've had who have the biggest impact on your business will pay dividends in all areas of from improved innovation, better quality and service, and obviously reduce complaints and waste. And trust plays a big part in that too. As you know, no one can be everywhere all at once. And knowing you've built strong relationships and you've shared robust, accurate data with them on their performance. Also, expectations. The biggest thing sometimes I see is, the expectations aren't shared. They're not understood, and therefore problems can arise, especially around quality. So being able to document that, record information, share information is gonna be incredibly helpful to improve those relationships. And then being able to share their performance from data as JP's just shown you. You know, it's not a gut feel anymore. It's it's based on data and, you know, that's gonna be incredibly helpful to to keep those relationships healthy. JP, I know you just chose a little bit about, nonconformances and closeouts and things like that. And I think it's really important just around compliance and thinking about audits. In my experience, I used to see a lot of manufacturers, brand owners, you know, go out and pay thousands of pounds for audits every year and would never close out their corrective actions. And I think this continuous improvement, this focus on root cause analysis, trying to stem some of the the issues, the quality issues, the food safety risks, you know, as early as possible. I think what would be great to show everybody is how perhaps we use our the dashboards to kind of flag gaps in closeouts or documentation. I think the dashboard's incredibly powerful and configurable depending on what the user wants to see. And I wonder if you could just quickly show us a bit on that. Yeah. I'd love to. So from a perspective of that dashboarding and the reports, being able to see whether it's a quality incident and seeing, you know, my quality incidents or my document requirements. What's still open? What do I need to collect, still? And being able to go through and have this data available at the click? Do I have a incident that is overdue? Do I have a rise in incident types, and what status are they in? And being able to go in and really look at those and very quickly access information access that information. So let's say that incident, you know, you that that I spoke about a little bit ago in collaborating, we we talked about how you can get that corrective and preventative action. Well, consider this. How about adding another workflow step that follows up thirty days, ninety days later with a reminder to you or the supplier to do an effectiveness check on that, very same incident. So with a platform like Trustwell's platform, you can go into those incidents and even into the configuration area and activate best practices like that to say, hey. I wanna create a new, you know, corrective action review step where I can go and, look at the effectiveness of my corrective actions later on and have that as a save report so you can go in there and and look at that. So being able to take those actions later on further down the road and not just be finished at good they've submitted it, But let me bring this back up a year later and see where that goes. Another good report that I, was thinking of showing from a a dashboarding perspective was on incoming goods and materials. So, you know, we think about collecting all the documents, from the supplier. We're really shoring up our compliance, and that strengthens our supply chain. But, you know, part of the risk that you may cover is when that supplier's product enters your facility, when it first centers in, a lot of times we see people's records are still manual or paper based on a lot of that receiving. So what if you took some of that activity and actually digitize that to make it reportable? So I can go in here and have this good receiving form where I'm really reducing risk, hopefully reducing the potential of a product removal exercise down the road by making sure when that product first hits my doors, how, you know, is it following our policies? So what's the product type? Do I need to do a temperature check? How was the shipping condition? Was it okay or not? What about the vehicle condition and delivery? Anything that you wanna look at being able to see those warnings, see where something may be out of spec, be able to report on this all the way down through. So I've talked about reporting on this, and, certainly, we saw that warning flag show up, and I could see that on one event. But how do I report across multiple instance of this or from more of that managerial, role. So I'm gonna go into my reports and look across the my good receiving report that I created, and I can see how many were in that good condition, and I'm seeing a lot of great signs here. But I do notice that there is a not okay rating on one of my, incoming material inspections. And I could quickly see exactly which inspection that was on, and I could see the details of that. And if I wanted to understand, well, what was the, you know, the exact root cause of this, I see the warning, we see that it was, the delivery driver. Here's another place where I could see all the information that happened. I could see what happened with the delivery driver, and I do see that if they do have facial hair that I want that covered. I see proof that they didn't. So, you know, I went ahead and made a note of that, and I actually issued a corrective action directly from this report to say this needs to be taken care of, and I could see that corrective action has been reviewed. It's been taken action on. So we have the follow-up data from the supplier about what their corrected corrective action is. In this case, they did need a new policy, and they've included that as part of their daily inspections. And they've given us a picture of what that will look like, and we see that review. So, again, tightening up those processes, being able to use your dashboards to increase that confidence now going forward that we've collected the compliance information. We've been collaborating. Now let's improve that confidence. So just based on time, I think we could go probably for, the rest of the day. But let's, turn it over to see if there's any questions from the audience and see what else we can, talk on in the time that we do have allotted. I do see one question here that, came in, and it's about the let's see. Can the solution be integrated to others, or can you add external elements to the scorecard? So that's a great question. Again, we're excited about that scorecard functionality. And while it can auto calculate data from within the system, it can also consider and you can create elements for data that doesn't live in the Trustwell platform. So if there's data from your warehouse management, ERP, receiving logistics, whether it's, you know, anything from invoice accuracy to, you know, late deliveries and, delivery timing. Those sort of things can be added in. In mine, you saw that sentiment area. Those are some of the places where I had those, you know, things that you might wanna bring in about their their delivery, their performance, how's their level of service been, and you can create those attributes within there. Those are ones that you would be either responding to or that we can integrate with, and you could pull that information in using our full set of APIs that are fully documented, very robust and easy to integrate to. So automatically point that information from a third party system or creating a field that you're actually going in and updating. So both of those are, available. Great question. So another question came in around other sources that are that are out there, that could be linked to the product. So if a supplier gets flagged in an, you know, a track some kind of regulatory or tracking database, those are other areas where that API comes into play. We've seen so many successful use cases of our APIs being used to pull in data and to, have that either trigger an action or, you know, could impact the scorecard, but so that data can be centralized within the platform. So whether it be I like to say we play well with others. So if there's another system out there, whether it's a platform that you've licensed or a regulatory, information set that you would like to leverage, certainly, we love having those conversations, and we've seen a lot of success doing that. Zoe, maybe you can respond to this one. I see one about the, around the segmentation topic. It looks like the question is, who in the organization's normally responsible for performing the segmentation? Great question. It very much depends, certainly the way, that I've experienced it before. When it comes to food safety risk, that would sit with the food safety team. So all of that data that I've kind of shared, that potentially could be coming into the team, I would leverage that and start to order that and prioritize it as best I can. When it comes to, whether that supplier's strategic, transactional, etcetera, that would be more of a supply chain slash procurement decision. And I think what has happened in my experience in the past is sometimes those activities go on in isolation. So, a supply chain team might decide that a particular supplier who's not quite ready yet, but they wanna develop them, they wanna get their their pricing right at some point, but there's no communication to the the food safety team. And the food safety team are saying, well, at the moment, you know, they don't conform to our brand standards or our food safety requirements. And I think, it's really important to have that communication. So by leveraging some of the solutions that you shared, JP, around, you know, how can you share data, It'd be really meaningful and robust. But it gives you then space to have conversations that aren't just about reactive issue management. You can start to talk about, well, is this supplier someone we wanna work with, we wanna develop? What's the what's the ultimate goal? You can have those strategic conversations because you have more time and more, bandwidth to be able to do that. So I think it's definitely a, a collaboration, but I think there is, certainly, in my experience, perhaps some of that happens in silos. Yeah. I often see the same where the different teams are requesting information from the supplier in those silos. And so the supplier gets a request from your organization, and they think, oh, we've already responded to a request from that organization. They don't realize it's a different team. So the more you can centralize that into a single platform and allow those requests, It's definitely helpful. That's what I love about the flexibility of the the questionnaires, the surveys, the assessments, the document types, not only on creating them, defining which suppliers they need to go to, but then internally, what's the workflow for each one of those separately, who needs to review it so those teams can, get just, their desk can only see what they're responsible for. And so that internal collaboration, can be done well. And, you know, whether that's category managers within the company, procurement, IT, all the different teams that may be involved in onboarding depending on what supplier type it is in managing that relationship. So, great discussion. I do see a couple more questions that we'll follow-up with afterwards. Based on the timeline, we wanna be respectful of that. So, Kristen, I'll turn it back over to you with some wrap up. Alright. Thank you very much, JP. And, now we'll transition into some upcoming events that we'd like to share with you. We'll be attending some upcoming trade shows in May twenty, May excuse me, May eighteenth to the twenty first, our team will be in Chicago, Illinois exhibiting at the National Restaurant Association show at booth one one four two. And then June fourth to the sixth, we'll be exhibiting at GS one in Orlando, Florida, booth number thirty eight. Our VP of supply chain strategy and insights will also be presenting alongside the FDA on Wednesday, June fifth at GS one, and their sessions titled preparing for FISMA rule two zero four with help from the FDA. So we if you are attending or going to any of those shows, we hope to see you there and connect with you. We appreciate your attendance again and for your time today. Our contact information is on the screen here. And should you have any questions or if you're interested in scheduling a FoodLogic demo, you can scan the QR code that's displayed on the screen, or you can email sales at trustwell dot com, and we'd be happy to assist you. Thank you to our speakers, Zoe and JP, for an excellent presentation. And thank you, and we'll see you soon. Making informed risk assessments also requires visibility into historical supplier performance, including audit results, recurring quality incidents, and documentation gaps. Explore how supplier scorecards and connected compliance information can support more effective supplier oversight with our on-demand webinar, [Tech-Driven Supply Chain Management](https://www.trustwell.com/resources/tech-driven-supply-chain-management-webinar/) --- ## Give Your Team a Consistent Way to Assess Risk Even with relevant information available, risk assessments can vary depending on who conducts them. Different team members may interpret the same findings differently, particularly when assessment criteria are loosely defined or historical decisions are difficult to reference. Establishing a consistent evaluation framework helps teams apply the same standards across assessments while accounting for differences in products, supplier relationships, operating environments, and organizational priorities. Configurable risk factors, scoring methodologies, and matrices provide a common structure for evaluating potential exposure while leaving room for the professional judgment that complex situations require. Configurable risk factors, scoring methodologies, and matrices provide a common structure for evaluating potential exposure while leaving room for the professional judgment that complex situations require. These frameworks also help teams communicate more effectively. When procurement, quality assurance, and supply chain professionals use a shared approach to evaluating risk, they have a clearer basis for discussing priorities and determining next steps. ### Make Risk Assessments Easier to Compare and Defend A consistent approach to risk assessment also strengthens documentation by creating a clearer record of how teams evaluate potential concerns. When assessments capture the information considered, the reasoning behind each evaluation, and the factors influencing risk priorities, teams have a reliable reference for revisiting decisions, responding to audit questions, and explaining resource allocation to leadership. A well-documented assessment captures the information considered as well as the reasoning behind a risk evaluation, and the factors influencing the resulting priority. This record becomes useful when teams revisit an issue, respond to audit questions, or explain resource allocation decisions to leadership. As new information becomes available, teams can reassess exposure using the same established criteria. This makes it easier to recognize meaningful changes and maintain continuity across evaluations. For organizations managing hundreds or thousands of supplier and product relationships, a repeatable food safety risk assessment process can provide greater clarity across the network and help experienced professionals focus on cases that need closer examination. Maintaining consistent documentation also supports audit preparation and helps teams identify gaps that may require additional attention. [Our interactive Food Safety Documentation Audit Readiness Assessment](https://www.trustwell.com/resources/food-safety-documentation-audit-readiness-assessment/)  helps FSQA professionals evaluate their current documentation practices, identify potential weaknesses, and receive personalized recommendations for improvement. --- ## Spend Less Time Researching Risk and More Time Addressing It Food safety expertise is one of an organization's most valuable resources. Yet experienced professionals often spend considerable time on the administrative work surrounding risk assessments, including collecting records, researching external developments, compiling findings, and updating documentation. Technology can help reduce that burden by bringing relevant information into a more connected assessment process. [**FoodLogiQ Risk Management**](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/risk-management/%20 ) combines documented supply chain data with configurable scoring, relevant external risk signals, and context-aware AI analysis. Developed specifically for the food industry, the solution helps teams assess exposure across suppliers, products, and locations while reducing the manual research traditionally required to build and maintain assessments. For existing FoodLogiQ users, the solution can draw on product and supply chain information already maintained within the platform, providing a stronger starting point for understanding business-specific risks. Rather than repeatedly assembling information from separate sources, FSQA professionals can use connected data and AI-supported analysis to evaluate changing conditions and determine which findings require further attention. ### Put AI to Work Supporting Food Safety Expertise I think you see that just because we have AI doesn't make good. Right? AI doesn't make things good. So the idea here is that if speed is commoditized, I believe that domain expertise is the premium. The understanding of how things actually work in the real world. What are the standards? What are the lived experiences that you all have? We just heard all morning of these problems that aren't necessarily in the documentation or in the paper or in the press release, but that you have lived. That experience and that expertise is the new premium. The growing role of [AI in food safety](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/ai) creates opportunities to make risk assessment processes more efficient, particularly when teams need to evaluate large amounts of information from different sources. AI-supported analysis can help research, organize, and synthesize relevant information, making relationships and emerging concerns easier to identify. It can also help teams compare assessments and recognize changes that may warrant additional review. Even with these capabilities, food safety decisions require professional judgment and an understanding of the broader business context. A risk score may help raise the flag, but food safety professionals must determine what that signal means for their operations and how best to respond. With FoodLogiQ Risk Management, teams can review findings, validate assessments, and determine appropriate actions based on their expertise and organizational priorities. Reducing the time spent preparing assessments gives these professionals more capacity to investigate concerns, collaborate with suppliers, evaluate mitigation strategies, and address the issues that demand their attention. For a closer look at this approach, Trustwell's webinar — [See Risk Sooner: A More Proactive Approach to Food Supply Chain Resistance](https://www.trustwell.com/resources/food-supply-chain-risk-management-webinar/%20 ) **—** explores how connected data and AI-supported analysis can help teams establish clearer risk priorities. --- ## Turn Risk Priorities Into More Focused Food Safety Action Risk assessments help food safety teams make more informed decisions about where to focus their attention and resources. By understanding the severity of potential hazards and how they affect specific suppliers, products, and operations, teams can prioritize follow-up activities based on the level of exposure. These findings can inform decisions about supplier audits, targeted investigations, corrective actions, and alternative sourcing arrangements, allowing organizations to address emerging concerns more effectively. Clearer risk priorities help organizations approach these decisions more deliberately, directing attention and resources toward situations with the greatest potential impact. This visibility also supports collaboration across departments, allowing procurement teams to evaluate supplier relationships, operations leaders to assess potential disruptions, and executives to better understand where additional resources may be needed. ## FDA Food Safety Investigations in 2025 FDA CORE+EP outbreak and adverse-event activities Incidents evaluated **69**   Responses initiated **26**   Public health advisories issued **11**     Figures represent separate FDA outbreak and adverse-event activities during 2025. Bar lengths are scaled to the largest figure, 69. These activities are not sequential stages of a single investigation. Source: [FDA CORE+EP 2025 Annual Report](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/coreep-2025-annual-report) Food safety risks continue to emerge regardless of when organizations conduct their scheduled assessments. The [FDA's 2025 CORE+EP Annual Report](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/coreep-2025-annual-report)documented 69 incidents evaluated, 26 outbreak or adverse-event responses initiated, and 11 public health advisories issued. These activities highlight the ongoing need for food safety teams to monitor emerging concerns, review relevant information, and adjust their priorities as conditions change. As conditions evolve, those priorities should evolve with them. New audit findings, supplier changes, recalls, and external events can all influence the level of exposure associated with a particular product or location. Organizations that connect this information with their existing assessments gain a stronger foundation for responding to changing conditions. Rather than relying solely on periodic reviews, teams can revisit their priorities as relevant information becomes available and adjust their response accordingly. Ultimately, effective prioritization helps organizations make better use of their resources, maintain visibility into emerging concerns, and take more focused action across their supply chains. --- ## Help Your Food Safety Team Focus Where It Matters Most Every hour spent gathering scattered information or manually researching potential risks is time that food safety professionals could dedicate to investigating concerns, strengthening supplier relationships, and protecting consumers. Giving teams a clearer picture of risk helps them make better use of that time. With connected data, consistent evaluation criteria, and a more efficient assessment process, organizations can recognize emerging concerns, direct attention toward areas of greater exposure, and make informed decisions before issues escalate. **FoodLogiQ Risk Management** helps bring that approach into everyday food safety operations. By combining supply chain data, configurable risk assessments, external risk signals, and AI-supported analysis, the solution helps FSQA professionals evaluate exposure more efficiently and prioritize the concerns most relevant to their business. Whether your team manages a complex supplier network, evaluates risks across multiple product categories, or needs greater visibility into changing supply chain conditions, a more connected approach can help turn risk information into clearer priorities and more focused action. ### See How FoodLogiQ Risk Management Can Help Your Team Prioritize Risk Your food safety team's expertise is valuable. Give them the tools and information to put it where it can make the greatest difference. [**Request a demo of FoodLogiQ Risk Management**](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/risk-management/%20 )to see how connected supply chain data, AI-supported analysis, and configurable assessments can help your team spend less time researching potential threats and more time addressing the risks that matter most. Tag(s): [Food Safety](https://blog.trustwell.com/tag/food-safety) ## [Theresa Rex](https://blog.trustwell.com/author/theresa-rex) Theresa Rex is Trustwell's Digital Marketing Manager. She has over two decades' experience researching, writing, creating, and marketing content for curious readers and leaders online. A former food and lifestyle writer, Theresa joined Trustwell in 2024. ## Other posts you might be interested in View All Posts ## [![The Top 6 Food Safety Documents Every US Food Business Needs Featured Image](https://blog.trustwell.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Top%206%20Food%20Safety%20Documents%20Blog%20Images%20(3).png?length=360&name=Top%206%20Food%20Safety%20Documents%20Blog%20Images%20(3).png) Food Safety 57 min read | August 13, 2026 The Top 6 Food Safety Documents Every US Food Business Needs Read More](https://blog.trustwell.com/top-food-safety-documents-us-businesses?hsLang=en) ## [![Smarter Menu and Product Changes Start With Side-by-Side Recipe Comparisons Featured Image](https://blog.trustwell.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Young%20Black%20Baker%20in%20Clean%20White%20Kitchen.png?length=360&name=Young%20Black%20Baker%20in%20Clean%20White%20Kitchen.png) Product Formulation 23 min read | December 10, 2025 Smarter Menu and Product Changes Start With Side-by-Side Recipe Comparisons Read More](https://blog.trustwell.com/side-by-side-recipe-comparisons?hsLang=en) ## [![The Best of Genesis Foods in 2025: 6 Feature Updates That Delivered Real Impact Featured Image](https://blog.trustwell.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Impactful%202025%20Genesis%20Foods%20Update%20for%20Formulation%20and%20Labeling.png?length=360&name=Impactful%202025%20Genesis%20Foods%20Update%20for%20Formulation%20and%20Labeling.png) Product Formulation 26 min read | January 12, 2026 The Best of Genesis Foods in 2025: 6 Feature Updates That Delivered Real Impact Read More](https://blog.trustwell.com/genesis-foods-2025-feature-updates?hsLang=en) ## Subscribe to blog updates ![Trustwell Logo](https://blog.trustwell.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Trustwell_2023/Trustwelll_logo_2col_rev_RGB%20(1).png?width=500&name=Trustwelll_logo_2col_rev_RGB%20(1).png) - [Platform](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/) - [Make Compliant Labels](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/make-compliant-labels/) - [Formulate Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/formulate-products/) - [Comply with Regulations](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/comply-with-regulations/) - [Track My Products](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/track-my-products/) - [Expedite Recalls](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/expedite-recalls/) - [Manage Quality](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/manage-quality/) - [Monitor Supply Chains](https://www.trustwell.com/platform/monitor-supply-chains/) - [Products](https://www.trustwell.com/products/) - [FoodLogiQ](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/) - [Compliance](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/compliance/) - [Quality Management](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/quality-management/) - [Traceability](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/traceability/) - [Recall](https://www.trustwell.com/products/foodlogiq/recall/) - [Genesis](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/) - [Food Formulation & Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/food-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Supplement Formulation & Labeling](https://www.trustwell.com/products/genesis/supplement-formulation-and-labeling/) - [Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/) - [Food Nutrition Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/food-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Supplement Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/supplement-nutrition-label-consulting/) - [Menu Label Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/menu-consulting-services/) - [FSMA 204 Consulting](https://www.trustwell.com/services/fsma-204-consulting/) - [About Trustwell](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/) - [Careers](https://www.trustwell.com/careers) - [Partners](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/partners/) - [Customer Stories](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/customer-stories/) - [News & Press](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/news-press/) - [Team](https://www.trustwell.com/why-trustwell/our-team/) - [Resources](https://www.trustwell.com/news) - Blog - Podcast - [Contact](https://www.trustwell.com/get-started/) - [Training](https://www.trustwell.com/services/training/trustwell-training-center/) - [Support](https://www.trustwell.com/support/) © 2026 Trustwell - [Sitemap](https://www.trustwell.com/sitemap/) - [Accessibility Statement](https://www.trustwell.com/accessibility-statement/) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.trustwell.com/privacy-policy/) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Theresa Rex", "url" : "https://blog.trustwell.com/author/theresa-rex" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-29T13:45:01.160Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-29T13:45:01.000Z", "headline" : "Food Safety Risk Management: Prioritize What Matters", "image" : [ "https://blog.trustwell.com/hubfs/Food%20Safety%20Quality%20Inspection%20in%20a%20Beverage%20Processing%20Facility.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.trustwell.com/food-safety-risk-management-priorities", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.trustwell.com/hubfs/Trustwell%20Logos/Trustwelll_logo_2col_pos_RGB.png" }, "name" : "Trustwell" } } ```