From Farm to Fork: The Logistics Behind Food Safety and Traceability

[00:00:00] If you can share data in a trusted way, then you can actually get visibility into how your products are treated, where they end up being sold, where they're harvested, what the date of harvest is, and actually validating that your supply chain is secure, ethical, and efficient. And it's important to mention that with FSMA 204, right, data sharing is actually a key requirement of the law.

[00:00:22] Hello and welcome to the Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US, a podcast in which we explore the mind bending world of global supply chains, covering topics such as automation, innovation, unique identity, and more. I'm your co-host Reed. And I'm Liz. And welcome to the show. Reed and I just had a really cool conversation about traceability. We dove into food traceability and things like FSMA 204 and the importance of understanding all the traceability data.

[00:00:52] Where it comes from and where it can go. Some of the use cases that once you have traceability data, things like shelf life and waste management, can really be improved. And while all of that hard work for FSMA 204 compliance can start paying off a little bit. One of the things that Wigg said that really struck a chord with me is that food businesses are not one size fits all. And so when organizations are trying to enable traceability, whether for regulations or not,

[00:01:23] there's just so many choices of different ways that they can enable traceability, whether it's a solution provider or themselves and just how they need to understand what they have and what they need to do moving forward. It was a great conversation. Hi Wiggs, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we're glad you can spend some time with us today. Before we jump into it, if you would, just for our listeners sake, just give us a little background on yourself and Starfish and what you all do.

[00:01:52] I'd be happy to. So I am a New Yorker. I've been in the technology industry for a long time. So I'm a technologist at heart. I love what technology can do to improve and drive benefits real world situations. And my background in the food space specifically started about seven years ago within IBM, where I had the opportunity to actually incubate a business from scratch. At the time, IBM had made significant investment in the blockchain technology space.

[00:02:17] They were looking for different use cases on how they can implement blockchain for product traceability, for financial transactions, for container shipping. Right. And even with partnerships with MERSC on container traceability. Now, the portion of the business that I had the opportunity to incubate was a program called IBM Food Trust.

[00:02:36] IBM Food Trust was a platform for traceability that allowed all companies in the supply chain from farm to packer processor to manufacturer to shipper to distributors to retailers and restaurants to all upload their data and have it shared in a trusted way, facilitating all sorts of different types of benefits. Now, the entire history of IBM Food Trust was very interesting because we started very strong initially in 2018.

[00:03:02] In 2019, IBM had a big partnership with Walmart and other major retailers like Carrefour, Nestle. And with that partnership with Walmart, Walmart actually sent a letter out to suppliers saying if you want to ship leafy greens to Walmart, you have to use IBM Food Trust. We were off to a great start. But since then, we actually saw a difficult growth pattern because for many companies, traceability was a nice to have. Right. It wasn't necessary. You know, these food companies don't need traceability. They didn't need traceability to get paid.

[00:03:31] They didn't face major litigation from not having it. And when it came to recalls, really, they they did their best and in many cases did a wonderful job of protecting the consumer. But the best efforts was enough. Right. These programs like what's going on with the FDA were not quite necessary or required. So we built the business for IBM Food Trust on the back of generating a benefit or a return on investment to these companies.

[00:03:53] Really, we focused on providing a more efficient means of collaboration with supply chain trading partners, exchanging key documents and certificates. For some, we helped them proactively manage the freshness and shelf life of their products. For others, we helped evaluate the risk associated with trading partners and monitor even the prevalence of forced labor, child labor, slave labor. You know, use cases go on and on and on on different ways that we added value.

[00:04:19] And even with foreign currency collateral and hedging risk, really interesting use cases. But in each case, we found a way for product traceability data to improve their supply chain operations. So we learned a lot of lessons through that experience. But we also had a lot of difficult challenges that we faced with the growth of IBM Food Trust. And notably, you know, IBM is a company. I had a wonderful run there. I was really proud of what we accomplished with IBM Food Trust.

[00:04:45] And I actually had the privilege of managing a variety of other supply chain products, including fulfillment, inventory optimization, procurement, environmental intelligence, and even some sustainability products. And it was just a wonderful run. But after seven years at IBM, you learn IBM is really good at some things and not so great at others. IBM is great at serving the biggest companies in the world because it is one of the biggest companies in the world. But IBM is not designed or it's not really made to serve small and medium businesses,

[00:05:14] especially the hundreds of thousands of small farms that you need to upload data to facilitate traceability. Now, this isn't a fault of IBM. IBM did traceability very well. We help those companies generate return on investment. But in this space, you know, food companies are about the furthest away from a one-size-fits-all model that I've ever seen in my entire career. Each company has nuances on how they produce the food, how they process and distribute products.

[00:05:39] In some cases, this inconsistency is a great thing because it generates a source of differentiation and competitive advantage, right? If you can distribute products faster, better than anyone else in the industry, then you're actually making yourself differentiated. But it introduces a lot of challenges and a lot of challenges that we face with IBM where there were inconsistent data formats. Data was collected in different ways. It was processed in different ways. And, you know, it was processed in different systems.

[00:06:04] So you've got ERP systems, EDI systems, warehouse management systems, order management systems, transportation management systems, the number of systems that are out there and even companies that don't use systems, Excel spreadsheets or even handwritten documents. Right? It makes it very difficult for these systems to exchange data and share data to realize those benefits from traceability. So in many cases, these systems and these companies have the data needed, but they're just not able to share or collect the data.

[00:06:33] Now, a lot of these lessons learned and challenges that we faced led to a little bit of a moment of realization for me that there was a gap in the market, right? A major gap that I thought I could maybe help with. And that led to the start of Starfish, right? Last year, we founded the business and Starfish is founded on the premise of creating a trusted data sharing network that connects all of the solutions in the market today. Now, that's not an easy task, right?

[00:07:00] And what that means is any food company using a technology solution that's connected to Starfish can now exchange supply chain data with their trading partners, regardless of what solution that trading partner uses. That's a really big deal for companies today. And that's not something that's really readily available to most companies. We know that nobody in the industry wants another technology solution, right? I'll be the first to acknowledge that. And, you know, that's something we hear so often, right? The food companies say, you know, there are already enough solutions in the market.

[00:07:30] In fact, there are over 200 traceability solutions worldwide that are trying to serve this space. So we have this very packed, fragmented space where all these ecosystem solution partners exist and they all do a wonderful job of collecting and making use of traceability data, but they're not working with one another. In some cases, that's not happening because of technological difficulties. It's actually difficult. It takes time to build connectors that manage data in a secure way.

[00:07:56] But in other cases, it's also because these companies compete with one another and it's not in their best interest to share data that might make another solution more attractive to business that they're competing for. And we need that competition environment. Exactly. Yeah. So when Starfish came in and we've launched Starfish, it was very important that we were complementary. We were neutral to these solution providers and notably, right? We're not disrupting anyone or telling anyone that they need to rip and replace their current solutions, right?

[00:08:25] Which has really helped facilitate such a warm reception to the industry. People are excited that we're not uprooting their systems. We're not telling them they need some big multi-year migration effort. We're telling them we'll come in, we'll be complementary and enhance the solutions they use today. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US. Today, we have a special exciting news to share with you. A special podcast discount for our favorite event of the year.

[00:08:56] GS1 Connect? You got it, Liz! Our annual supply chain focused conference. And in 2025, it's in Nashville. Yeah. Music City. I cannot wait. And I can actually drive there, which is amazing. Reid, how many GS1 Connects have you been to? I've been to six. This will be my seventh. Awesome. I've been coming to GS1 Connect before it was called GS1 Connect.

[00:09:23] And I do love meeting all of our attendees every single year who bring so many great examples from grocery, food service, retail and healthcare. And they talk about how they solve supply chain visibility challenges. And in 2025, Nashville gives us a good reason to pun how GS1 standards can help amplify impact on your supply chain operations. I see what you're doing there. But that is correct.

[00:09:49] GS1 Connect is your chance to harmonize operations with the power of GS1 standards. And wait! GS1 Connect is also the perfect place to orchestrate networking connection with trading partners. How about that? Discover the greatest hits of supply chain efficiencies from across various industries.

[00:10:12] Okay. I think that's enough music puns for the day. Maybe one more. If you have an achy-breaky supply chain, GS1 Connect in Nashville is a place to help cure what ails you. So mark your calendars for June 10th through 12th and join us at GS1 Connect. It's time to take your supply chain game to the next level. And as a podcast listener, we are able to extend a special discount. Yeah, that's right, Liz. As a podcast listener, you can get a 10% off the registration price.

[00:10:41] Simply go to GS1connect.org to register and enter the promo code 25PODCAST10 to take advantage of this offer. If you've never gone to GS1 Connect before or have gone a dozen times, there's always something new to learn and new people to meet. Again, the website is GS1connect.org and the promo code is 25PODCAST10. See you there.

[00:11:11] It's really cool and it's a little different than what we typically hear when we start talking about traceability and traceability solutions. And I was going to ask you what your unique mission is, but first I want to ask you a question just so I understand what y'all do. It sounds to me like you're a connector. Is that right? Like you connect different types of data systems for traceability and make them talk to each other.

[00:11:36] That's exactly right. Yeah. One way you could describe our service and maybe a fun way that I should include in our marketing is we're almost like interoperability as a service, right? We build connectors that connect to all these different services and allow for data sharing. You know, there are two main components of our technology. We can get into that a little more later, but we have this series of connectors and we have an engine. And those two pieces in concert allow for this trusted data sharing automatically for everyone in the industry.

[00:12:04] That's really cool. And I know that organizations and we'll talk about FSMA in a minute, but different organizations are having different challenges, we'll say, in how to work on traceability and talk about the ROI. And at GS1, we talk a lot about interoperability and the importance of the standards to help enable interoperability. So that's one of the buzzwords that we like to talk about, too. Right. The use of GS1 is really important to us, and that's why I'm really thrilled to be talking with you both today.

[00:12:33] Translating that data into a consistent format is essential to facilitating data sharing, right? Period. You can't do it if you're translating to a different standard, right? In some cases, if we had point to point connections that had different data structures on either end, you'd be mapping any one of hundreds of different data fields individually every time you ship a product and you want that digital data to reflect the physical flow of products. So when we talk about interoperability, there's this dream of interoperability at IBM in 2020 and 2021.

[00:13:02] We actually ran a couple of different pilots in concert with or in partnership with GS1, and both of them were wonderful, right? They showed successfully that with the right data structure, you're able to share data in a consistent way across these different systems. Now, it's not as simple as just sending data and hoping that it arrives, right? You do need to actually build the infrastructure, the pipes, right? The connections to facilitate that flow. So even for GS1 companies, right?

[00:13:31] And we have many partners that have already signed up for Starfish. They're very strong GS1 members. They find it very valuable for Starfish to maintain that infrastructure, maintain the connectivity and take care of that maintenance that is not really strategic for them. They can focus on more strategic investment where they can actually generate a better value for their end customers and let this, we could call it almost like a commodity based service of building these connectors and sharing connectors. Leave that to Starfish.

[00:13:58] I'd like to take us up just a level and talk a little bit about the product and traceability itself and why that's so important to food safety. Can you just share a little bit more about, you know, why do we need to trace all these products? How does it relate to food safety? There's this example of kind of a supply chain without traceability that I like to talk about where if I was, let's say, a farmer and you were a retailer and I was shipping you crates of romaine lettuce.

[00:14:27] Back in the day, right, I could ship you those crates, you get the crates, you've got a receipt and you can pay me, right? And so we'd have systems that would share that we have a product, which is romaine lettuce in packs of whatever volume and you've got a price and you've got a quantity, right? And that's all you need to get paid. And that's really the most important thing. If I'm producing product, I want to get paid. The issue with that scenario is if something goes wrong, neither of us know which crates of romaine lettuce it was, right?

[00:14:56] So if we're dealing with a listeria or an E. coli outbreak, right, then, you know, when we're investigating, we actually have to throw out all of the product because we don't know what's good and we don't know what's bad. The concept of recalls is a science that's been evolving in a really impressive way over time. And I think, you know, when I talk about recalls, I actually like the idea of trying to shift the consumer approach to hearing about recalls to more of a positive impression than a negative impression, right?

[00:15:25] In many cases, and there's an important difference between what an outbreak is and what a recall is. In most cases, if there's an outbreak, that leads to a recall. An outbreak is a strain of illness that gets people sick enough that the CDC actually investigates, identifies a common strain of illness, and can actually link that to a food product that is the origin source of that contamination. And an outbreak actually gets a lot of people sick.

[00:15:49] Like, for example, the slivered onions that were in the McDonald's quarter pounders that I think was the first time in over 30 years they were ever taken off McDonald's menu. Don't quote me on that fact. It might be more, but it was really a big deal. And that was a recall that was a result of an outbreak. Now, in many other cases, we hear about recalls that are proactive and so many recalls are proactive because companies identify that pathogens might be in food or contamination or allergens, right?

[00:16:15] In many cases. So companies are doing this at their own loss to protect consumers, right? They're doing it proactively to make sure that we're safe. So when I hear about recalls, I'm actually happy to hear about it because it means that companies are being proactive about identifying the food that might not be good and protecting us as consumers. Now, with traceability, that actually means that we can identify more precisely and more quickly where that bad product came from. And we can map this point of convergence that it was lot two, three, four of this product.

[00:16:45] And we know exactly where it went, remove it from shelves, which enables us to reduce the impact or mitigate the impact of a recall. So people don't get sick for three weeks or three months after the product's bad and we don't know what products that on shelves and we can't handle that scenario, but also helps reduce food waste. And there's a big sustainability aspect of what we can do on reducing how much product that's good is actually thrown out.

[00:17:08] I love what you said about changing the perspective when you hear recall from a consumer's perspective. You know, we know a little bit more about food safety and traceability than just a person walking into a grocery store. If I hear just as a lay person, romaine lettuce has been recalled. I might not be listening for the brand or the region where it may have been grown. You know, Yuma and Salinas were two foreign terms to me 10 years ago.

[00:17:37] So do you think that with this maybe shift in some perspective from a consumer and also additional education, that a surgical recall will be more accepted versus all romaine is gone. So I feel safe as a consumer versus a specific brand that was impacted. And I've been feel safe as well. My opinion is better systems, better processes builds trust.

[00:18:03] Even myself as a consumer, historically, I've heard of recalls happening with, let's say, carrots recently, you know, late last year. And I was nervous to consume carrots. Right. And, you know, you have that nervous feeling. Why take the risk? I don't want to get sick. I don't want to have a stomach ache just because I eat carrots. So I'll just shift to something else. Now, most likely the carrots that are in stores are not those lots that were affected. And systems are very advanced. People don't know how advanced they are today.

[00:18:31] But with the advent of the Food Safety Modernization Act and specifically rule 204 D, which is specifically about traceability, companies now have to trace their products. So these processes and systems in place is going to make food safer and hopefully gives consumers more confidence that they can come into a store and know that everything on shelves right now is good. And there are no known issues. There might be scenarios in the future where the more skeptical consumers actually download apps and they scan their product and it says good or bad.

[00:19:01] Right. And we'll have all the data to help that and tell the story of the product. So all that is possible in the future. But it's just a progression that over the past, let's say, 10 years, we've gotten immensely better. And over the next three years, we're going to get even better with the advent of this federal regulation designed to keep consumers safe. That was awesome. Great segue, by the way, because my next question was going to be around FSMA. So you defined FSMA. We've talked about it a little bit on the show before.

[00:19:30] I'm going to actually read like a definition so I don't mess it up. The rule lays out specific requirements on additional traceability records for all supply chain stakeholders that either manufacture, process, pack or hold foods on the food traceability list. There's about 16, I think, commodities on the food traceability risk, high risk foods. They go from leafy greens to some fish to shell egg in their shells, soft cheeses, nut butters, et cetera.

[00:19:58] It also includes ingredients. So an ice cream company that has peanut butter may not be somebody who says, oh, I usually have high risk foods, but they are. So there's a lot of education and awareness being done by the industry. If I can interrupt that example of the ice cream. So like it's vanilla ice cream, right? It's not included. But if it becomes vanilla chocolate swirl that has now peanut butter and chocolate and other ingredients in it,

[00:20:27] now it is at, quote unquote, risk and needs to be monitored. In this case, they process that ice cream with peanut butter in it. And like I said, these organizations haven't been on typically on a high risk list. So making sure that this kind of organization and the right people within the organization know has been something that we as GS1US

[00:20:52] and lots of other organizations and association and WIGS, you know, from his perspective are trying to get out there and educate and then help give them the tools to be ready for compliance, which is less than one year away. It's January 20th of 2026. We kept saying, oh, it's over a year. No, we're under a year now. So WIGS, I know that you've been out in the industry a lot. I saw you recently in Vegas. I'm sure you've been in lots of places. How are organizations getting ready? Are they ready?

[00:21:22] Are they like hoping and putting their head in the sand and hoping that this is going to be delayed or it's not going to happen or it's not going to impact them? What are you hearing? It's a mix of different adoption curves, right? Certainly larger companies, retailers especially, have been working on this for a long time, right? I mean, I mentioned Walmart has been working on this for the past seven years, definitely longer than that. That's certainly the experience that I had with them. And some of these companies know that it'll take much longer than a year to actually adopt practices to collect this data.

[00:21:51] When we're talking about collecting data, it doesn't just magically appear, right? Unless you've got sophisticated IoT sensors or RFID tags, you've got to actually implement the systems to adhere those tags, put barcodes on the actual products themselves and scan those barcodes at different stages of the process. So the physical process of collecting this data is actually very difficult.

[00:22:11] And then the actual process of sharing the data, maintaining the data, actually making sure that all the data is complete and filling the gaps, right, is really difficult. So there are many different elements involved in actually getting up to speed with FSWA compliance. But from a company perspective, many companies are not ready because it's difficult to do. Many companies have been waiting and holding out that maybe something will change with the law. Maybe they'll give me a little more time. The tough part is companies were given three years, right?

[00:22:40] And from the FDA's perspective, and certainly from what I've heard, there's no sign of them delaying or making any changes. So hope is not a strategy is what you're getting at. It's a bit of a dangerous game to play. But there are really positive things as well in the industry where we're seeing companies adopting. We're seeing technology providers stepping up and providing really advanced technology to make this as easy as possible, right? And with IBM Food Trust, we learned a lot of lessons working with farmers about how to help them ingest their data, right?

[00:23:09] We started with simple web forms, and that was difficult because many of them aren't going to their computer every time they harvest a product. So you've got to build the app on your phone. You've got to get a printer in the field to actually adhere the labels, right? The logistical challenges have gotten better and better with what's available in the market today to collect that data. Well, and you said earlier, like one size does not fit all ever when you start talking about, especially, I mean, I speak from produce side, right? But it's so disparate on what companies need to do.

[00:23:39] And their job is to harvest food and get it to us. And now it's just layer with more requirements, more requirements. And then they need more education to understand, right? I don't envy their position now, but there are tools and there are conversations that are happening in industry, hopefully to help enable them with the education or the knowledge that they need. Yeah. And Liz, you brought up, you know, ingredients.

[00:24:02] And we've talked about this before, but I know for a fact, because as humans and the marketing folks, it's like you need to hear it seven times from seven different sources before it actually like sinks in. It's kind of like, you know, when your friend or family member buys a new car and you're like, oh, my gosh, I've never seen this before. And then on the way home, you've seen 13 of them. And then it's like, you know, everyday things.

[00:24:21] But the ingredient bit is important because I think a lot of people out there that are listening, you know, think of FSMA, the Food Safety Modernization Act, as farming, produce, lettuce, other things, peanuts. Not my problem. Well, guess what? If you use peanuts in your ingredients, now this peanut butter aspect of it is you're a part of it. So I'm making vanilla ice cream and now I'm making peanut butter swirl.

[00:24:51] Now I have to track it. I'm making chocolate chip cookies versus peanut chocolate chip cookies. I have to track it. So it gets in there and you'd be surprised at how much peanut butter is actually in things. Wigs, what are some other benefits? You know, like Liz has heard me say this as a past entrepreneurial and I still consider myself pretty entrepreneurial in looking at businesses. I mean, we do business for three main reasons.

[00:25:18] Make money, save money or comply to a regulation. And that's where we are with FSMA right now. And you brought up earlier working at IBM Food Trust and it was driven by ROI. Makes total sense. But you ran into challenges because the market wasn't there just yet. But now the market is and now we have some regulation around it. But what are other benefits just from compliance and money? What are other benefits that we're looking at here?

[00:25:45] So much of the benefit stems from working with your trading partners for food companies working with their trading partners in a way they haven't before. And that's facilitated by this traceability data sharing. If you can share data in a trusted way, then you can actually get visibility into how your products are treated, where they end up being sold, where they're harvested, what the date of harvest is. And actually validating that your supply chain is secure, ethical and efficient. Right.

[00:26:13] And that's really what I would break it down into. Now, the number of use cases from trusted data sharing at scale is it's almost it's way too many to list here. But then, you know, with this type of data, you even get into some really fun, fun scenarios like consumer engagement that we had a lot of fun with with IBM, where you hit this shift where you have more information that you're able to share with your consumer about the product. Right. Before you had never actually had the full story of the product back to the farm. Now you actually do.

[00:26:41] And it's not just some generic marketing story. It's your actual product. It's the individual unit of product that you can see back to the farm. You can see a rod in your plate. You can see every step of the journey. You can even maybe see the temperature along the way or the certificates. Right. Was this Rainforest Alliance certified coffee? And let me just take a look at that certificate and map the lot number on that certificate to the actual lot on my bag of beans. Right. And I'm enjoying this cup of coffee. Maybe I want to thank my farmer.

[00:27:08] So with IBM, we actually partnered with a company called Farmer Connect, where they had a Thank My Farmer application. You scan the QR code and you could donate to a local watershed or educational initiative and actually give back. It's kind of like tipping your farmer because most people know that farmers get squeezed. Right. The margins don't always trickle back down to the farm. And so they're not making necessarily as much as they deserve for this amazing cup of coffee. And if you really enjoyed it, it's a nice way of giving back and engaging with your brand.

[00:27:36] This has been fascinating for me especially. I definitely like traceability and food safety more than read. This is my wheelhouse and I'm absolutely in heaven. So before we wrap up, what is on the horizon for Starfish? What's next for you all? I've been blown away. When you start a company, you're testing a hypothesis that you never really know is how it's going to turn out until you're in it. And we're in it. And I've really been overwhelmed at how positively people have responded to the concept and the service that we can provide.

[00:28:06] I think a lot of what's behind that is the fact that we are complementary. We're helping rise the tide for all ships in the industry. And even though our main customer is a technology solution, indirectly we are serving food businesses. So our main service is to technology solutions that need help. And I live that as the leader of IBM Food Trust. And I suffered these problems myself. So, so far we already have dozens of technology companies that have already adopted our solution.

[00:28:32] We have thousands of food companies that are already using Starfish to share and exchange data. And it's important to mention that with FSMA 204, right, data sharing is actually a key requirement of the law. Many people focus on the initial challenge, which is collecting the data. And you can collect data within your four walls, but legally you actually have to share that data. Now, outside of the legal requirements, you have to share that data to realize any of this return on investment as well, right? So if you actually want to get a benefit, that data sharing becomes absolutely critical.

[00:29:01] And so for many of these technology partners, we're helping them help their customers realize more benefit. So I'm really thrilled with where we are, where we've come in the future, right? Once we've built this network, right, and, you know, we really have everyone in the industry using this technology to share data in a secure way. I want to tackle data quality, right? That's the next big frontier for me that people have a really difficult time with. And my dream personally is to disprove the idiom garbage in, garbage out, right?

[00:29:29] I don't think it needs to be the case, right? We have intelligence that we've never had before, right? And I know people are probably tired of hearing about artificial intelligence and machine learning, but it's really valuable technology if you can identify grounded use cases where it can actually make a difference.

[00:29:43] So if we have, let's say, a farmer that has sequential lot numbers that they print on each one of their cases and they've had 100 that's, you know, 101, 102, 103, 104, and all of a sudden they've got 1,065 and maybe someone put an elbow on the keyboard or accidentally hit something, we actually might know this isn't what you meant to enter in, right?

[00:30:06] We can correct that data, and if there's a recall for that, it just happens to be the 107th unit and that happens to be the 1,064, it messes everything up, right? So that also prevents the benefit. It prevents compliance with federal law. It prevents all of us from being safe at the end of the day, and that's something I'd like to tackle. So I think with this data, we can bring intelligence, we can bring a service that enhances all of our technology solutions offerings to their companies.

[00:30:32] So really excited about that as the next frontier and what I've always dreamt of really tackling in a serious way. That's very exciting. I know that Liz wants to stay on this topic forever, but we're running out of time, as we always do. So I'd like to transition to our last two questions of the day, and we always do this just to kind of see what's going on with folks out there and kind of learn a little bit.

[00:30:53] But we'd like to know from you, what is your favorite technology that you're using today, either at work or personally at home? I hope it's not a cop-out, but it's a version of artificial intelligence, but it has just changed my life in a way that I never realized. And that's these note-taker apps, right?

[00:31:13] During meetings, having someone artificial just sitting in on the call and pumping out all the notes and sending me a summary of all the things we talked about has been so valuable. So much of my days are just back-to-back calls, and I'll come out of them with just a stack of notes and then need to transcribe the notes every evening to figure out what I actually talked about and what all my follow-ups were. So it's fundamentally changed the way I work, and it's amazing. It saved me so much time and made me more diligent.

[00:31:40] I think people appreciate the fact that I'm actually following up on the things I promised during calls, and AI is calling me out when I don't. So it's kind of nice. I think that's so cool. And it does, when it gives the spit out of the action items, it's like, holy cow, I missed that because I'm a human, and it's not human, and it's not going to miss it. It's really cool. Okay, so the last question. What is something new you'd like to learn about or learn in the near future?

[00:32:09] Most of my career has been in technology, and I've learned so much about what technology can do to the point where it's shifted my mind, right? When people ask, can you do this? Can you build something? The answer is rarely no, right? It's just a matter of how much time and how much resources can you contribute to doing something. Shifting to the food space has been eye-opening over the past seven years just in a way that I never imagined.

[00:32:32] And the amount of complexity of the science behind food safety, the science behind ingredients and recipes and how products are made, manufactured. I've learned so much, but getting into the science, it's been the case of you don't know how much you don't know until you start learning a little bit about the topic. And I really want to get deeper and learn more about just how sophisticated these programs are.

[00:32:56] I was talking with the FDA recently, and Angela Fields was just sharing the details of how the CDC analyzes these strains somehow that are linked to a food product. And you've got 10 people that get sick, and they can actually identify the strain and the actual food it came from. It blows my mind. This is science that I really can't comprehend. So I'm excited to learn more as we get deeper in this industry and things become more sophisticated. Well, Wiggs, that's all the time we have for today, and we appreciate you spending it with us.

[00:33:25] And we look forward to seeing you out and about in industry. And I know our paths will cross again. So thanks for the time. Yeah, thank you so much. Could I leave you with just one fun quote that's actually a quote from a GS1 team member? On a podcast recently, this just resonated so deeply with me. I wanted to share Lucy, who is the Supply Chain Visibility Director at GS1, was on a podcast recently, and she quoted an African proverb that I think is just so wonderful. She said, if you want to go fast, go alone.

[00:33:54] If you want to go far, go together. I just think that resonates so deeply for the entire industry and where we are today and what needs to happen for the industry. So hopefully that is a good one to leave with your listeners again, but it's one that I think bears repeating. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you both. Thank you for joining the Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US. If you enjoyed today's show, you can subscribe to our feed or explore more great episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:34:21] Don't forget to share and follow us on social media. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.