FDA Begins Next Phase of Pilot on AI for Seafood Import Screening
FDA is rolling out improvements to its machine learning capabilities in the latest phase of its pilot program to test the use of artificial intelligence for import screening. The agency on Aug. 15 began the third phase of its Artificial Intelligence Imported Seafood Pilot program, during which FDA will implement enhancements to how machine learning algorithms can complement field operations, and incorporate new data from other agency efforts to improve sampling.
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“The third phase is designed to improve the agency’s ability to quickly identify imported seafood products that may be contaminated by illness-causing pathogens, decomposition, the presence of unapproved antibiotic residues, or other hazards,” FDA said in an update on the program posted on Aug. 22.
Phase three “will help to determine the feasibility of deploying in-house AI/ML models using the intelligence that FDA extracts from the data we collect reviewing millions of import entries per year,” FDA said. “For example, there have been enhancements made that determine how machine learning algorithms can best complement field operations and improve the agency’s ability to identify products posing a threat quickly and efficiently,” it said.
FDA also will use lessons learned in a related shrimp pilot, which is now focusing on “areas of increased risk, such as shrimp contaminated by aquaculture drugs, for foreign inspections,” FDA said. “This includes increased importer inspections, higher rates of sampling and examination, and use of non-traditional tools, such as third-party audits, specific to this commodity. We incorporated the data from this project into the Third Phase of AI Imported Seafood Pilot Program, allowing for a more robust and larger targeted sampling.”
The pilot, launched in 2019 (see 2009010045), completed its second phase in July 2021 (see 2102080051), FDA said.