New food traceability tools provide instant contamination notification Speed is critical when removing unsafe food from the supply chain to prevent illness and save lives. Since the beginning of May alone, there have been eight food safety recall events in the US. According to the US Department of Agriculture, about 48 million episodes of foodborne illness and 3,000 deaths occur per year in the US. The most common foodborne pathogens cause an estimated annual burden of $14 billion to $36 billion. iTradeNetwork (ITN), the global provider of supply chain management solutions and traceability for the food and beverage industry, has added new capabilities that instantly identify specific recalled products and simultaneously notify suppliers and buyers. These traceability tools help remove recalled products from the supply chain more quickly, whether they are in route from supplier to buyer, at a distribution center or at the final point-of-sale/consumption. These functions are unique in the industry and built on the strength of iTradeNetwork’s 8,000 customers and integrated FDA/CDC alerts.