Dive Brief:
- Traceability throughout a manufacturer's supply chain is becoming a necessity for transparency and food safety, and former traceability methods may not be enough to meet changing regulations and expectations.
- Manufacturers have long standardizedthe "one-up and one-back" (OUOB) system for traceability. This system often has a lack of visibility of the complete past and future of a product or ingredient and lacks a unified process in which tracking information can be cumbersome later.
- Whole chain traceability presents one solution that uses modern technology to increase a product's visibility throughout the supply chain and reduces risk of food safety issues, such as bacterial or allergen contamination.
Dive Insight:
Whole chain traceability won't always be a "nice to have" alternative, especially as thenew FSMA regulations begin to take effectfor larger manufacturers next month. Therisk assessments and documentation procedures参与FSMA需求通过之前几乎需要the visibility and utility whole chain traceability can provide manufacturers.
That's especially true in times of inspections or recalls in which companies and regulators must identify and fix or remove the source of a contamination as quickly as possible. Whole chain traceability could help manufacturers avoid or alleviate costly recalls that continue to expand to more products, such as the currentGeneral Mills flour recallormysterious sugar recall.
Whole chain traceability could also potentially limit the number of unsolved cases of food contamination. In the case of CRF Frozen Foods earlier this year, regulatorscouldn't find the exact source of listeria contaminationthat led to the recall of 350 products across 42 brands.
Traceability also has implications for manufacturers' marketing, branding and transparency efforts. By knowing more about their own supply chain, manufacturers can share any relevant information directly with consumers, such as throughingredient glossariesorscannable QR codesprinted on product labels, like the Grocery Manufacturers Association'sSmartLabelinitiative.
