European Commission launches AI TraceMap tool to combat food fraud and outbreaks

The European Commission has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed to accelerate the detection of food fraud, contaminated products and foodborne disease outbreaks across the EU’s agri-food supply chain.

The tool, called TraceMap, is now available to national authorities in all EU Member States.

The Commission says the system will help regulators identify suspicious operators, track risky consignments and remove unsafe or fraudulent products from the market more quickly, without requiring additional resources.

Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare said:

TraceMap is a breakthrough which will revolutionise the EU’s capacity to react to food safety crises and to clamp down on food fraud.

It will allow faster detection of food fraud and of those trying to circumvent our import conditions. It will provide better coordination between Member States and stronger protection of both EU farmers and consumers.

This is critical infrastructure for crisis prevention and control and should help boost all stakeholders’ confidence in our robust food safety systems.”

How the TraceMap system works

TraceMap uses AI to streamline access to large volumes of data from existing EU food safety systems, allowing investigators to rapidly identify links between operators and consignments. Once investigators identify a potential risk, they can monitor the wider agri-food supply chain to trace affected products and trigger faster recalls.

According to the Commission, the platform will improve screening accuracy, speed up the detection of suspicious activity and help investigators remove non-compliant goods from the market more efficiently. The platform will also strengthen controls on imported products, aligning with measures outlined in the EU’s Vision for Agriculture and Food.

The system processes and interprets information from multiple EU food safety management platforms, including the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES). By integrating these data sources, authorities can track trade patterns and production flows more quickly during investigations.

A pilot version of TraceMap has already proven its potential. The Commission said it recently helped identify and recall infant milk formula produced using contaminated ARA oil from China, enabling investigators to trace affected products and respond faster.