Traceability Systems Benefit Consumers and Businesses

According to the European Food Law, every company must have a food safety concept. They need for example a HACCP-Concept, a self-controlling plan and a hygienic plan. While these are just the first steps, their implementation is crucial.

Traceability systems tend to be motivated by economic incentives, and not by government traceability regulations. Companies build traceability systems to improve supply-side management, to increase safety and quality control, and to market foods with certain claims – such as whether a food was produced without genetic engineering. The benefits associated with these objectives include lower-cost distribution systems, reduced recall expenses, and expanded sales of high-value products. In every case, the benefits of traceability translate into larger net revenues for the company.

But traceability is only one side of the coin. Tracking food in the production process does absolutely nothing unless the tracking system is linked to an effective control system.

The European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) estimates there is an average of more than 3,000 food recalls across the EU annually. This means there is real danger in not having a plan for the traceability of ingredients, which will help foster an effective recall program, a crucial component of food safety. Such a plan can help keep consumers safe, strengthen customer relationships and maintain the reputation of the business.

Traceability and Recall Plan

In a previous interview with Bryan Hitchcock, IFT’s Vice President Science, Policy and Learning and Executive Director Global Food Traceability Center, he described how consumers are looking at the food industry to actively demonstrate the safety and sustainability of their food. Tracing products through the supply chain improves food safety, diminishes risk, and averts devastating health consequences and economic loss to the food system.

“It may sound simple, but the critical first step is defining clear and specific objectives. Traceability systems can cover a wide range of complexity depending on a specific organization’s needs. Specifically, in the case of bakeries, defining traceability needs around the grain supply would be a critical topic,” he explained.   

Having a traceability and recall plan is a necessity that supports the growing complexity of the supply chain, better detection of food safety issues, and more efficient mandated reporting by manufacturers and processors. It is also a regulatory requirement in a food safety plan and should include management’s strategy to take quick and effective action when experiencing a recall.

Once key priorities and goals are identified, the next step is to identify critical tracking events (CTE’s) and key data elements (KDEs). These represent the desired data to be collected and when it is collected. Next would be setting up the tools to transmit some or all of this data up and down the supply chain. This is referred to as interoperability which is a critical element to a smart traceability system.

“Example parameters specifically for bakeries could include: ingredient sourcing attributes (e.g. Harvest location and time, grain varietals, GMO status, shelf-life, storage temperatures, etc.), manufacturing processing parameters (e.g. Food safety control steps), and product distribution (e.g. Shelf-life, temperatures, times, locations, etc.), and sustainability factors. This list of potential parameters is endless which is why we focus on prioritizing against key goals,” Hitchcock points out.

You can read the rest of this article in the May-June issue of European Baker & Biscuit magazine, which you can access by clicking here.