Traceability in the food/drink industry

28.10.2020

What is traceability?

One of the most important responsibilities of any company involved in food manufacturing is making sure that everything you produce is safe to eat and the movement of every ingredient can be tracked and traced in terms of its history and application. Traceability (Click here to understand more about the importance of food traceability) is the ability to track the movement of food products through the supply chain including the history, application and location of that product. This can include scenarios like which animals were used in a slaughterhouse for meat production or which batch of raw material grain was used to produce a loaf of bread. Traceability is largely a business to business exchange of information as this information can be sensitive and difficult for consumers to interpret.

Why is it important in the food/drink industry?

A crucial element when it comes to food/drink manufacturing is the ability to guarantee the safety, quality and integrity of every product that’s produced, and to make sure it meets all requirements and complies with safety standards. If these protocols aren’t followed it can lead to damaging the brands reputation and incurring expensive recall costs. However the worst case scenario is putting the health of consumers at risk as this can be detrimental to any company involved in the sale of perishable products.

The ability to trace all raw materials back to a finished product and rapidly identify work-in-process inventory and finished or sold goods in the event of a product recall, help to avoid potential damage to the brand or a loss of reputation in the eyes of the consumer. Traceability in the food/drink industries helps to minimize the impact of such product recalls by ensuring rapid and accurate response to any issues that might happen during production or in transit.

How can ERP software help with traceability in the food/drink industries?

Even the most novice food manufacturers and processors know the importance of food traceability and the steps required to achieve compliance. While many food manufacturers may have some form of tracing system in place, many solutions don’t do enough to ensure accurate traceability and product recalls. This is why it is crucial that you have a software system in place that can give your business every advantage in terms of traceability, quality, compliance and product recalls. It can be extremely difficult for food manufacturing companies to keep up with changing regulations and standards without a system in place to ensure that they are compliant and can show traceability on multiple levels. Without this it can be difficult to scale your business and work with the larger retail outlets and multiples.

Instead of relying on manual processes, disconnected systems and spreadsheets to ensure your company is staying compliant, why not let a solution built for the food industry do the critical work for you. By leveraging the functionality built into an ERP solution, you have the ability to optimize your traceability while adhering to food safety initiatives and regulations.

Our integrated food/drink solution here at Herbst

Our integrated software solution for the food/drink industry (Click Here to read more about our software for Food/Drink Industry) can help you eliminate paperwork and improve accuracy with integrated batch traceability. Enforce full traceability on a batch level whether you are purchasing, selling or manufacturing. Detailed customer recall letters can be sent at the touch of a button, referencing every product and document referencing the contaminated batch. These details can be mail merged (email, post) based on either the supplier batch numbers or your finished product batch numbers.

The system facilitates all of your farm-to-fork requirements in order to stay compliant, meet supplier standards and follow legal requirements. The food industry is a great example of where batch management can be a laborious task in an expanding business. In fast moving and always changing environments, keeping active and on top of valuable information in real-time is imperative. This is where our integrated and modular system can give you the advantage you need and can help you cut costs and avoid costly mistakes throughout the manufacturing process.

Our touchscreen production Kiosks

Measuring each stage in the production process is often a vital component in ensuring the quality and standards of each product. Our production Kiosks make this process seamless, with work orders from the back office being sent to the Kiosk in real-time. The touchscreen interface shines in this environment, as workers can easily view source and destination items, conduct quality checks and manage batchable items. Signatures can then be captured ensuring that each individual employee has made the necessary checks and is happy with the finished product. These finished products are then made available immediately.

(Click here to read more about our new features on the latest version)

A huge advantage of our Kiosk is the removal of unnecessary paperwork that can often be lost, misplaced or simply just incorrect. Automation is created between the back office and factory floor, as work orders are sent to the kiosk in real-time and can be controlled from start to finish. Discrepancies and comments from production runs are also saved against each job and can be seen immediately in the back end system.

To find out more about traceability and our food/drink solution or if you are interested in a demonstration of our product, please get in touch by clicking here