The Science of Safe, Healthy Food

How We Help Clients

• Food Innovation

  As the world's population climbs and climate change presents risk to the food supply, the quest for innovative foods grows. Can we create foods from cells in a lab? From seaweed? From fungus? From insects?

  Exponent helps clients achieve success across crucial dimensions of food quality, including: 

  • Is it safe? 

  • Is it nutritious?

  • Is it healthy for the planet? 

  Hitting all three requires true multidisciplinary collaboration. Exponent supports your success with custom teams spanning nutrition scientists, chemists, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, physicians, toxicologists, registered dietitians, biochemists, microbiologists, entomologists, environmental scientists, risk assessors, and regulatory consultants. 

• Nutritional Evidence

  Our daily lives are awash with health claims, whether for the newest ingredient from a lab or a staple like milk. But what should you believe? Can certain dietary patterns "reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes?" Can a food be "heart smart?" "Lower calorie" than what? 

   Exponent provides science-based conclusions for clients including food and beverage companies, trade associations, and the federal government. Through comprehensive reviews of existing research, we substantiate the evidence. We also note where gaps in the literature exist and outline the research needed to move your product forward.  

  Our scientifically valid analyses can be used to document claims for regulatory requirements, product labeling, product defense, or advocacy messaging. 

• Regulatory & Compliance

  Two of the biggest challenges for food companies is gaining regulatory approval for novel ingredients or products and complying with their dizzying array of regulations.  

  The first step in pursuing approval is to answer several key questions:

  • What is the ingredient or product? (The answer isn't always straightforward.) 

  • Have humans consumed it before? Where? How? 

  • What is the ingredient or product's regulatory status around the world? Is it approved anywhere? 

  • What are the documented safety aspects of it? What rigorous science-based safety assessments are needed?

  • Are there documented health aspects for the substance?

   Our experts can provide clear answers and a path forward. We can provide you with an extensive review and safety evaluation of each ingredient. Where data is lacking, we will build a detailed analytical framework specifying what you need.

  Beyond data — and drawing on decades of expertise in the global food industry — we  can help you craft roll-out roadmaps for your target markets, based on our assessments of regulatory hurdles and consumer demand.  

  Once a product is approved, our team of experts, some of them former regulators, can help ensure compliance with a broad scope of international regulations. 

• Environment & Sustainability

  Consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the food they consume, often choosing products based on sustainability ratings or green marketing messaging.  

   Our experts help you evaluate your environmental footprint and communicate it in accurate terms to avoid claims of "greenwashing." From seed to table, we can help you understand what to measure, how to measure it, and how to read the data. 

  For protecting your products, our polymers experts help companies design packaging that is sourced from compostable or recycled materials, while our food safety experts ensure compliance with current regulations. 

   In the bigger picture, we help you understand the impact of climate change on your business, now and in the future. How will your customer needs change? How might regulations evolve? How can your operations use less energy and prepare for weather extremes? 

• Process & Production

  The best time to discover food safety risks is before they result in contamination. Our assessments can offer you a full understanding of where trouble may be waiting in your supply chain, facilities, equipment, personnel, quality systems, and processes.

  Our teams are expert at the application of hazard analysis, preventive controls, and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for food and beverages, dietary supplements, and pet food and animal feed. Our food safety assessments include evaluations of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and compliance with relevant regulations such as the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Foreign Supplier Verification Plan (FSVP), and several other food safety, traceability, and allergen control programs across the U.S., EU, UK, and other markets.  

  We also assess compliance with various Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) schemes. Exponent can assist with process and equipment design and validation, as well as the development or assessment of sampling and testing approaches for incoming raw materials, in-process quality control, finished products, and microbiological environmental monitoring.

  We conduct mock inspections around the world, preparing you for live regulatory visits and helping with responses to regulatory observations, warning letters, and other compliance and enforcement actions.

  We prioritize going beyond subjective analysis by conducting both quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) and health hazard evaluations (HHE). This allows us to develop actionable recommendations, grounded in science, to help you work toward minimizing risk to consumers, patients, and your business itself.

• Product Safety & Recall

  When lives are on the line and your reputation is in the balance, there's no room for guessing about suspected contamination. Our experts can provide reliable, science-based evaluations to help you understand:

  • What is in the contaminated food, and in what concentrations? 

  • What are the tolerable levels?
  • What are the potential health risks to consumers?
  • What can be learned from consumer complaints or adverse event reports?
  • What, if anything, should be recalled?
  • What is the scope of the recall?
  • How should the information be communicated to the government, customers, and public?
  • What is the root cause of the problem?
  • What corrective actions should be taken to prevent a recurrence? 

  We can help you every step of the way, from quantifying the problem to conducting incident and foodborne illness outbreak investigations, including advising on epidemiology, supply chain traceback, and intensified sampling, all to aid in identifying the source of the issue and carrying out remediation efforts.

• Disputes

  Whether you're navigating a supply chain dispute, product quality or safety issue, or insurance claim, Exponent brings principled science to the task — telling you what you need to know, not what you want to hear.  

  Exponent scientists and engineers represent the science at dispute proceedings by offering clarity, precision and a knack for explaining complicated topics in understandable ways.   

  We can assist you across all phases of disputes, including pre-litigation, fact-finding, litigation expert testimony, and arbitration. We have decades of experience working with clients on biological, chemical, and physical contamination events, lawsuits related to Proposition 65, equipment failures, wrongful death and illness, and more.