Traceability in the food supply chain refers to your ability to track all components of food through the supply chain, from raw materials to the store. This includes all ingredients, additives, and other components.
Food traceability solutions provide visibility across the supply chain. As a food and beverage manufacturer or processor, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires you to keep detailed records. If a food-borne illness breaks out, or if an ingredient is contaminated, these records help speed up the recall process.
Tracing products and ingredients using IoT technology also helps you optimize your inventory rotation to prevent spoilage and waste.
Why Food Traceability Matters Beyond Regulatory Compliance
Food and beverage traceability technology goes beyond compliance. Yes, you need to comply with regulations, but you see other benefits from supply chain visibility. Food traceability solutions keep you recall ready. When recall events happen, you can track and remove the impacted products instead of wasting usable product.
Transparency into your supply chain also improves quality control. If you notice a defect or contamination, you can trace it back to the source and notify any customers who may have a defective product.
Many consumers want to know where their food is coming from. Traceability gives them this visibility. You improve customer trust and boost your brand image in the process. It also helps you prove your branding claims, including a commitment to sustainability or a commitment to local sourcing.
Where Food and Beverage Traceability Programs Commonly Break Down
As the food and beverage supply chain has grown more complex, you may find yourself facing supply chain traceability challenges. Data silos exist between supply chain partners. Some of your suppliers and customers are working with legacy systems that don’t integrate with your tracking platforms. They may be relying on manual processes to track and share information. As large companies acquire smaller factories and food producers, they have to integrate software systems and data models, which leads to a lag in data.
Adding more handoff points to the supply chain also complicates food traceability. In a farm-to-table environment, one supplier manages a product from start to finish. Modern supply chains have multiple handoff points and more failure risks. Each partner manages storage conditions, trailer sanitation, handling, and documentation, and you’re relying on each company for data.
You can also experience internal data silos that hamper visibility in your own organization. Working with disconnected inventory and customer relationship management platforms means manual entry and data delays or errors.
For example, if a beverage distributor is working with inaccurate inventory data for its customers, they might order too many raw materials. The distributor is stuck with extra carrying costs, spoilage, and wasted inventory.
The Technologies Behind Modern Food Traceability Solutions
Supply chain technology has improved your ability to accurately trace ingredients, raw materials, and other food and beverage supplies in real time, using:
- RFID Tags: These are small devices embedded into products or packages. They use radio frequency to transmit information about the item’s location to an RFID reader, which communicates with software for real-time tracking.
- IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of smart devices connected to the internet. IoT sensors, GPS trackers, and other connected devices collect data and transmit it to your software platform. IoT devices enable you to track location, temperature, movement, and other data.
Traceability software collects all this data and submits it to a software platform. Some platforms use AI and other analytics tools to transform data into actionable insights that enhance food and beverage supply chain visibility.
Your system consolidates and analyzes data from multiple trackers to give you a detailed record of your raw materials and ingredients. During a recall, you can isolate the specific shipment and remove impacted items. You and your customers have lot-level visibility, meaning you can identify and resolve issues with specific batches instead of wasting a full shipment.
RFID tags, IoT sensors, and connected networks provide real-time inventory insights, meaning you can replenish supplies and raw materials without worrying about spoilage.
Four Best Practices for Building End-to-End Traceability
Following these asset tracking best practices will help you build a scalable food traceability system:
- Standardized Data Collection: Collecting data in a standardized format makes it easier for every vendor on your supply chain to track and report the same information. It also improves interoperability between software platforms. Use a recognized framework, such as GS1 Standards.
- Supplier Integration: Partner with suppliers to exchange information and improve internal processes.
- Automation: Use a food traceability solution to track ingredients and raw materials automatically in real time. You remove human error and eliminate the lag time between manual data collection and reporting.
- Visibility Across Production Workflows: Improve internal visibility by tracking workflows on your shop floor and your back office to monitor inventory levels, production capacity, and other crucial data.
Using Real-Time Intelligence to Improve Production Decisions
Getting accurate data from your food traceability platform also helps improve operations. This data enables more precise demand forecasting and better inventory management. Traceability systems also monitor product routing, shelf-life, and storage temperatures to prevent spoilage and food waste.
Food traceability also improves production planning. Surgere’s production control solutions provide insights into all your manual and automated processes. Tracking ingredient lifecycles, supplier time-to-delivery rates, and inventory flows informs how you schedule your production teams and equipment. Understanding actual customer demand enables you to produce enough inventory to meet needs without waste.
Improve Food Traceability with Connected Visibility Solutions
Track and trace food across the supply chain both internally and externally with Surgere’s production control solutions. Our connected inventory management, tool tracking, and warehouse management platform collect the data you need to optimize internal workflows and production management.
Our solutions also track your products as they move to your customer for full end-to-end visibility. Track handoffs and batch quality to easily manage recalls and quality issues. Send reports and other data to your suppliers to remain in compliance with traceability standards.
Contact us today to implement these solutions in your company.
