In KPMG’S 2014 Food, Drink and Consumer Goods Industry Outlook Survey, 22 percent of the senior  managers questioned said that “staying ahead of or navigating changes in the regulatory environment” would consume most of their time in the coming 12 months. Nearly 20 percent said that geographic expansion would be one of the primary areas of investment in the coming months. Taken  together, these two data points echo a common food industry refrain: we want to expand internationally, but we’re increasingly aware of the difficulties and costs of doing so from a regulatory standpoint.

There are no shortages of world records when it comes to Pearl GTL. The facility,  located 80 kilometers north of Doha, Qatar, includes the largest GTL plant and one of the largest instrumentation and control systems anywhere on earth. The facility became fully operational in 2012.

Most food producers are subject to a broad range of regulations and standards, from industry-wide ones such as ISO 22000 (which sets out several communications and system management guidelines), the United States Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011 and the European Union Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 to process-specific ones like the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) or the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA).

For businesses, the costs of food and beverage recalls are significant and extend far beyond the hard costs of pulling product off shelves and scrapping inventory. Erosion of consumer confidence and loss of brand equity have consequences that are much farther-reaching and infinitely more costly.