Food Safety Matters – Episode 205

"Black and Gabor: Digital Transformation and Emerging International Standards for Food Safety"
Date: November 11, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode offers a deep dive into the emerging trends in global food safety standards and the accelerating role of digital transformation, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), in shaping the future of food safety regulation. Host Adrienne Bloom sits down with Tom Black (Chair, Codex Committee for Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems, Australia Dept. of Agriculture) and Dr. Gabor Molnar (Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO) to discuss pressing challenges, innovative digital solutions, and ongoing international standard-setting initiatives. The episode also covers the Vienna Food Safety Forum as a collaborative platform for driving technological and regulatory advancements.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the International Food Safety Agenda

• Tom Black underscores that while efficiency is increasingly important for both businesses and regulators, "food safety absolutely has to remain the priority for the global food system" (33:25). The challenge is to leverage new technologies without sacrificing safety standards.

• Emerging complexity in supply chains and pressures for productivity are driving the adoption of digital tools to support risk-based, science-driven decision-making.

• "How do we... use the best modern tools and create opportunities to more accurately, rapidly, and in sometimes real time get continuous flows of information and data that allow us to make great regulatory decisions?" – Tom Black (34:10)

2. The Digital Transformation of Food Safety Regulation

• Data Digitization: Worldwide efforts are underway to digitize data collection and sharing for regulatory decisions (36:25).

• AI & Machine Learning: Regulators and businesses are experimenting with AI to interrogate large datasets, speed up regulatory approvals, and identify trends in food safety hazards (36:50). AI is primarily a decision-support tool, not a replacement for human expertise:

  • "AI is a tool that we should use to assist us, but it doesn't replace... the human intervention in terms of decision making." – Tom Black (45:38)

• Electronic Certification: The movement from paper-based to electronic certification at the government-to-government level is streamlining global food trade and traceability (38:00).

• Smart Farming & Remote Monitoring: In Australia, technologies like smart farming and geospatial data identify food safety risks linked to environmental changes (e.g., droughts, floods). Remotely captured images and data streams may replace costly, in-person compliance audits for remote or high seas operations (41:40).

• Risk-Based Regulatory Approaches: Australia is piloting systems that allow low-risk operators a reduced regulatory burden, using unstructured data (photos, videos) and AI analysis for compliance verification (40:16).

3. Food Safety Challenges for Developing Nations

• Dr. Gabor Molnar addresses the resource disparities: implementing advanced standards and digital tools is difficult for developing countries due to limited data infrastructure and resources (50:20). UNIDO supports tailored capacity-building and helps with the translation of Codex guidelines into practical use.

• "When we are talking about digital innovation, it's very important to mention that we require a large amount of data... to feed those algorithms," highlighting 'data velocity, volume, and variety' as key challenges (50:20).

• Twinning and Partnerships: Bringing developing nations into standard-setting and supporting public-private collaborations is key for sustainable improvement.

4. Codex SISFIX Committee – Ongoing Work and New Initiatives

• Remote Audit Guidance: Accelerated during the pandemic, now widely implemented (55:33).

• Third-Party Assurance: Guidance enabling regulators to use data from private assurance schemes, streamlining oversight (57:00).

• Equivalence Work: Consolidating guidance on recognizing equivalent food safety outcomes across national systems (56:03).

• Food Fraud: Developing consensus guidance on prevention and control at the systems level (58:00).

• Modernizing Traceability: Updating standards to address interoperability and minimum requirements for digital traceability (59:00).

• Digitalization of National Food Control Systems: Drafting principles on interoperability, scalability, data governance. The intent is to guide, not stifle innovation (61:25).

• Establishment Listings and Sanitary Certificates: Creating best practices and standardized language for international certificates to enable paperless trade, leveraging AI for drafting and validation (62:50).

• Transparency in Appeal Mechanisms: Guidance on clear, fair appeals processes for rejected imports (65:20).

5. UNIDO’s Food Safety 2.0 Approach

• Industrialization as a Development Lever: UNIDO emphasizes robust food business operations and enabling environments (e.g., metrology, accreditation) for food safety and economic growth (67:52).

• Shared Responsibility: Food safety is framed as an industrial issue, not just a regulatory one, requiring capacity building and active collaboration with national industry and quality infrastructure agencies.

• Public-Private Data Partnerships: UNIDO focuses on voluntary third-party assurance schemes and facilitating trusted data sharing between industry and regulators (71:30).

6. Vienna Food Safety Forum

• Forum Profile: A multistakeholder event uniting regulators, industry, academia, and big tech for open dialogue on food safety’s digital evolution (73:51).

• Key Themes:

  • Digital transformation and its uneven global uptake.
  • The need for trusted data spaces and cross-sectoral collaboration.
  • Challenges such as data quality, sharing, literacy, and regulatory adaptation.

• Opportunities for Developing Nations: Potential to "leapfrog" legacy systems by building entirely new, fully digital control systems (79:58).

  • "Rather than those... who have already got it are going to struggle to shift to the new one, there’s an incredible opportunity for some economies to leapfrog" – Tom Black (79:58)

7. Opportunities and Cautions for AI in Food Safety

• Challenges: “Over-reliance,” data bias, hallucinations, and the human capacity to validate AI recommendations (81:48).

• Next Steps: The 2027 Vienna Food Safety Forum aims to explore how to assess and manage these new technology risks, advance data literacy, and empower all actors in the food chain.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Food safety absolutely has to remain the priority for the global food system... But efficiency and effectiveness, but not sacrificing food safety at the same time, that’s what everyone’s wrestling with." – Tom Black [33:25]
• "AI is a tool... to assist us, but it doesn't replace... the human intervention in terms of decision making." – Tom Black [45:38]
• "When we are talking about digital innovation, it's very important to mention that we require a large amount of data... to feed those algorithms." – Dr. Gabor Molnar [50:20]
• "We have to tap on data in order to optimize our system, reduce the frequency on those who are the, so to say, good guys, look at data trends and at the same time see how we can make our system more robust." – Dr. Gabor Molnar [52:30]
• "Some in the room were also saying that, that divergence and gap actually presents an opportunity for emerging economies potentially to leapfrog… and not go, well, that's the system that economy's got now and I'd like that. But what is the modern system that we're going to need in 30 years?" – Tom Black [79:58]
• "How we can empower regulators, how we can empower businesses, is to use that data for better... decision-making and to be able to verify and control the recommendations which might be provided from an AI." – Dr. Gabor Molnar [82:00]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [33:10] – Introductions to Tom Black and Dr. Gabor Molnar; Digital transformation in food safety begins
• [34:10] – The growing importance of efficiency and real-time data in global supply chains
• [36:25] – How regulators are incorporating digitalization: digitized data, AI, electronic certification, smart farming
• [41:40] – Australian case study: remote monitoring and risk-based regulatory approaches
• [45:38] – The role of AI as decision-support in regulation
• [50:20] – Challenges for developing nations; the need for data and tailored solutions
• [55:33] – SISFIX (Codex) work: remote audits, equivalence, food fraud, traceability, digital systems, and appeals guidance
• [67:52] – UNIDO’s “Food Safety 2.0” approach and rationale
• [73:51] – The Vienna Food Safety Forum: origins, participants, and key themes
• [76:24] – Dangers and open questions about AI in food safety: data quality, readiness, and regulatory adaptation
• [79:58] – The leapfrog potential for developing nations through digital transformation
• [81:48] – AI risks: data literacy, over-reliance, and validation; preview of Forum 2027 focus

Conclusion

Tom Black and Dr. Gabor Molnar provide a compelling vision of food safety’s future—one that is risk-based, globally harmonized, and digitally enabled, yet grounded in scientific evidence and human oversight. Their insights illuminate both the opportunities and the intricacies of harmonizing food safety standards and technological innovation across diverse international contexts. The Vienna Food Safety Forum emerges as a crucial venue for open, cross-sectoral dialogue. Stay tuned for the next phase of international guidance from both Codex and UNIDO, and for the 2027 Vienna Food Safety Forum, which will focus especially on managing AI’s emerging risks.