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Food Safety

Food Traceability: Ensuring Safety and Compliance

5 Min read

From farm to fork, the food journey has become more complex, resulting in more food safety challenges. The importance of food transparency has increased. According to research, the food traceability market is expected to reach $35.8 Billion in 2033.

Food traceability is a major topic of interest and an essential part of the food and beverage industry. The new FDA rule Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) traceability rule has given this topic more attention. This blog will teach you about food traceability standards, its importance, requirements, principles, regulations, and more.

1. Introduction to Food Traceability

Food Traceability: Introduction

Food traceability is a process of allowing the movement of food products and their ingredients across the supply chain from the first step of processing to the end product, backwards and forwards. In other words, traceability is the ability of the business to trace food products and ingredients. 

Traceability includes tracing the product from supplier to customer, which means food is monitored from the manufacturing process until it reaches its consumers.

Tracing and tracking food includes the documentation, production link, processing, and distribution to suppliers and customers. It helps to avoid any hazard or contamination. It is easy to find the source of hazard or contamination and eliminate the contaminated product from the market or process line for safe consumer consumption.

2. How is Food Traced?

Increasing numbers of advanced technologies effectively help track and trace food products and their ingredients in the supply chain. These technologies involve radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, scanning, and blockchain technology. 

Food Traceability: RFID Tags

2.1  Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 

Each product has RFID electronic tags containing all the information scanners can read. RFID is more accessible to use but is relatively more expensive than barcodes.

2.2 Barcodes 

Each food product contains a barcode. If you scan the barcode, it will provide you with all the information about the product, including its origin, production, and distribution details. Barcodes recover information from the food supply chain database. However, these barcodes have downsides, like limited equipment and errors. Barcodes are relatively cost-effective. 

Barcodes provide access to information about products, increase the recall procedure, and result in transparency and loyal customers. 

2.3 Blockchain Technology 

Blockchain technology stores each transaction’s information, providing tamper resistance and security benefits. Blockchain is not compatible with the food supply chain and is costly. 

It depends on your choices to choose whatever is suitable or affordable for you.

3. Importance of Food Traceability

Food traceability standards are essential in the food industry; the crucial aspects define its importance. Traceability ensures food safety for public health and safe consumption. It also ensures the quality of food by preventing food safety issues in the product line. A traceability system helps processors, manufacturers, and distributors detect the source of contamination, food-borne illness, and outbreaks throughout the process line.

The main objectives of food traceability are:

Food Traceability: Importance
  • Providing correct information to the consumers
  • Enhances and ensures the quality of products with a quality control system
  • Certifications and testing withdrawals of food
  • Traceability helps to avoid costly recall procedures and reduces expenses. If the source of contamination is identified quickly, more money can be saved.
  • It also helps to find the source of contamination. For example, if some diners at a restaurant have poisoned steaks, the source of contamination was during the shipment of meat, while conserving the meat, contaminated animal feed, and processing of meat, etc. Traceability provides the answer to all problems and identifies the source of contamination. Implementation of traceability helps to optimize the supply chain and also ensures customer satisfaction and safety.

4. FDA Traceability Requirements

FDA traceability requirements involve determining whether each person is required to trace the food. The new FSMA rule introduced by the FDA involves food manufacturers, processors, and packaging holders following record-keeping traceability requirements. The food traceability list of FSMA 204 includes the following:

Fruits and vegetables like leafy green veggies, cucumber, peppers, herbs and fresh-cut products.

Leafy Green Vegetables
  • Shell eggs
  • Sprouts
  • Finfish
  • Tomatoes
  • Nut butter
  • Seafood
  • Ready-to-eat food
  • Cheese 

The FSMA also ensure the maintenance of the records of KDEs (key data elements) with the CTEs (critical tracking events). The information must be provided to the FDA within the agreed-upon time. 

The CTA includes harvesting, cooling, initial packaging, receiving, shipping, and transformation.

4.1 Risk Ranking Model

The risk ranking model involves the factors identified in FSMA section 204. Risk ranking model development includes the 7 criteria:

Risk Ranking Model
  • Frequency of outbreaks and occurrence of illness
  • Likelihood of contamination
  • Severity of illness
  • Pathogen growth with shelf life consideration
  • Cost of illness
  • Consumption rate and the amount consumed 
  • Contamination probability in the manufacturing process.

The FDA provides a tool developed to explore the risk ranking model for food tracing, resulting in the development of a traceability list. Users can access the tool and download the results.

5. Principles and Rules in Food Traceability 

An effective traceability system ensures the food safety goals by following the rules or principles listed below:

5.1 Business Information 

Accessible information about the manufacturer and processor, such as registration details, name, contact information, and FTM (Food Traceability Management) plan.

5.2 Product Information 

Product information includes the place of origin, date of reduction, manufacturing date or expiry date, recipe bat information, and traceability load codes.

Food Product Information Files

5.3 Record Keeping 

The process of documenting the name, address of supplier, facilities, product type, shipping and receiving dates, invoices, batch number, purchase receipts, etc

5.4 Supplier Information

Collecting the information related to suppliers.

5.5 Corrective Actions 

CAPA plans to quickly address and quickly monitor the problem in the food processing line. 

5.6 Integrated Systems

The integrated system involves the supply management chain business and stakeholders using compatible digital tools.

6. Challenges

Food traceability faces many challenges in the food and beverage industry that are listed following:

6.1 Complexity of Supply Chain

The complex supply chain makes implementing a traceability system difficult. The movement of food and its ingredients through different areas and stakeholders complicates its traceability system.

Food Traceability: Product Recall

6.2 Product Recall and Food Safety

Traceability quickly identifies the source of contamination or hazard for consumer safety. It separates contaminated batches and sends them to recall to avoid severe consequences for companies and consumers.

6.3 Regulatory Compliance

Facing potential issues and struggling with traceability will save you from problems in building integrated brands, profitability, and food safety. Many companies follow strict regulations on traceability, which include information about the place of origin, production, and transportation to meet legal standards. 

6.4 Costly Maintenance and Technology 

Traceability system management requires digital solutions that are time-consuming and expensive to train, maintain, and install. This must be revised to maintain consistency and accuracy in managing traceability data.

6.5 Data Analysis

Data analysis is complex in supply chains, making it difficult to collect and analyze data from multiple parties. To automate and simplify the process, a centralized data management platform should be implemented.

7. How do you choose the best food traceability software?

You have discussed all the challenges and opportunities in the food traceability system. Therefore, it is important to choose the right system to achieve the primary goals. 

Foods Connected for Food Traceability

7.1 Analysis

Identify the specific requirements for the food recipe, including the extent of t, the company-sized supply chain, and meeting the regulatory requirements. Each Food industry has different requirements for the traceability system. 

7.2 Scalability of System

A well-grown bakery needs potential resources and a scalability system for its growth.

7.3 Convenience 

The system must have easy-to-use tools and processes and be worth the time it takes to implement. A food traceability system must include all the supply chain stages, from receiving raw material to retailing the end product; however, it will not be effective if it skips any processing stage.

7.4 Data security

Traceability includes confidential information, so choose the system that prioritizes data security to prevent undesirable situations, data misuse, and sharing with unauthorized persons.

8. Conclusion

If the Food industry wants to ensure food safety to fulfill its primary goals, it simply needs to implement food traceability. The main task is to trace the product you receive and sell well and detect any inconsistency in the raw material or end product.

Concluding critical points from the article, to sum up:

  • The system involves the usage of barcodes, blockchain systems and RFID tags for traceability. 
  • Food traceability ensures food safety, cost reduction, reduced recalls, regulatory compliance and better emergency response. 
  • FSMA and FDA regulate the food traceability system
  • The principles of record-keeping include record-keeping, information requirements and CAP management. 
  • Implementing food traceability can face many challenges and has severe advantages and disadvantages. 
  • You must choose a traceability system to improve efficiency and track the product and its ingredients backward and forward.

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