Wiliot recently announced that its Ambient IoT Food Safety Initiative has been recognised as a winner in the 2024 Progressive Grocer Impact Awards, more specifically in the Ethical Sourcing/Supply Chain Transparency category. Past winners include Kroger, Whole Foods and Giant Food.
The Progressive Grocer Impact Awards recognise the accomplishments of food retailers, suppliers, and solutions providers that are addressing issues such as food waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and responsible sourcing across the food chain.
The award emphasises Wiliot’s commitment to driving change in the food industry by leveraging the ambient IoT to reduce food waste and equip businesses with the real-time, item-level data they need to increase revenue, improve safety, achieve regulatory compliance, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Wiliot’s battery-free ambient IoT Pixels can attach to any food product or packaging to embed it with ambient intelligence. Once connected to IoT Pixels, products push out item or case-level information about their location, temperature, carbon footprint, and more to the Cloud-based Ambient Intelligence Platform – where food retailers and companies can access this real-time, item-level data.
“This first-of-its-kind initiative unites technology companies, standards organisations, and food brands around the shared vision that the ambient IoT is the most scalable, effective, and low-labour approach to achieving safer, more sustainable, and transparent food chains,” said Steve Statler, CMO at Wiliot. “No one company can drive the change we need to see across the food industry, which is why we created a coalition of like-minded leaders committed to adopting and scaling the ambient IoT in our food system. We’re honoured to have our work – and the ambient IoT more broadly – recognized by Progressive Grocer’s Impact Awards.”
As part of its Ambient IoT Food Safety Initiative, Wiliot partnered with iFoodDS and Trustwell to incorporate its ambient IoT data into both companies’ food safety and compliance platforms. Now, in addition to tracking food products using traditional methods – QR codes, advance shipping notices, and electronic documentation – these platforms can also track products using Wiliot’s ambient IoT data.
The initiative is designed to support the country’s largest food companies use ambient IoT to comply with the Food Safety & Modernization Act’s Rule 204, which looks to enhance visibility within the supply chain to create better responses to foodborne illnesses, contamination and other public health and safety issues. The industry has a deadline of January 2026 to comply with Rule 204.
“This goal of better protecting consumers cannot be achieved without creating greater transparency and traceability throughout the entire food production and distribution system,” added Frank Yiannas, former Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and one of the architects of FSMA Rule 204, who also serves as a Strategic Advisor to Williot. “The Ambient IoT Food Safety Initiative has established a consortium of industry leaders that’s helping food companies embrace a new technology that’s poised to make this transparency and traceability a reality faster and more efficiently than otherwise possible.”
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