AUTOMATIC DATA CAPTURE
Opinion
Efficient track & trace is a non-negotiable
In this question & answer interview, Zetes’ food traceability expert, Pascal Durdu, discusses the importance of better traceability using data capture and goods ID technologies.
Why was it difficult to prove the source of the recent eColi outbreak in Germany? A lack of concrete traceability information available from the producers and sellers made it difficult to isolate and identify the original eColi contamination source. This, in turn, meant it was impossible to conduct a targeted recall. Had the source identification and targeted recall been possible, it would have avoided the existing situation where blame for the outbreak was directed at an entire industry. So, even though there might have been a few errors during the analysis as a whole, better traceability would have meant the numbers of companies implicated would have been lower.
How could traceability systems help to avoid this situation? Apart from the obvious safety considerations, traceability is a useful risk management tool because it allows food business operators to minimise the disruption and cost to the trade and maintain higher levels of consumer confidence. Zetes is able to help food manufacturers benefit from many of the lessons already learned within the pharmaceutical sector as it continues its fight to improve consumer safety by preventing counterfeiting. As a result of new CIP13 regulations, the pharmaceutical sector has enhanced its use of traceability and now captures product serial number, lot number and expiry date using a Datamatrix on every packet of prescription drugs. Food manufacturers could apply this same logic to their own operations.
If a company already has a traceability system isn’t this sufficient?
Possibly not, because most systems only track the lot number, which is not granular enough in detail. Lot number information usually refers to the production site where in
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MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT July 2011
fact, a lot comprises hundreds of individual cartons, which makes it difficult to isolate contamination problems. Additionally with fresh produce, it can also be important to track goods at a higher unit level, or to know what might have impacted the goods’ external environment at different stages along the supply chain. To do this requires reducing the unit of identification and employing tracking at the carton or case level in a specific shipment. Currently there is no legislation requiring food companies to introduce an internal traceability system – i.e. to maintain records identifying how product lots have been split and combined to create new products or lots. However regulators agree that an internal traceability system such as this would save costs in terms of time to complete a withdrawal and also would avoid unnecessary wider disruption.
How would a traceability system
work in practice? There are several options that are now readily accessible and which enable quick and easy identification even at unit level, to label individual cucumbers. They work as follows. A unique serialised number is generated and applied as a barcode label in real time to products either at the unit or carton level. By using next-generation barcodes, such as the Databar or Datamatrix, which are smaller in size but hold more data, more detailed information about the product can be recorded and shared among supply chain partners – producers, transporters and sellers. After labelling, the barcode can be read at different stages as the produce moves through the supply chain. This original data is captured at each point and new information can be added to enhance the audit trail.
What level of product
information should be captured and why? As a minimum, product or raw material origins, batch and other product information
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like types of fertilisers used, pick dates, sell by or expiry dates and conditions during transportation should be recorded in a standardised way. This means problems can be isolated quickly and a very targeted recall conducted. For meat producers, detailed information about the animal, farm and slaughterhouse details for example, can also be captured.
counterfeiting.”
Pascal Durdu: “Zetes is able to help food manufacturers benefit from many of the lessons already learned within the pharmaceutical sector as it continues its fight to improve consumer safety by preventing
How can wastage and shrinkage levels be cut through better traceability? Most producers and sellers are already labelling produce and capturing information to a certain level. By capturing more data in a standardised, automatically readable format, such as expiry date information, instead of just printing it on packaging for consumers to check, this would help significantly reduce wastage levels by automating process control and stock management. For instance information about possible compromises to product quality or contamination risks during transportation would highlight that the FIFO (first in first out) method of stock rotation used in most supermarkets is not always the best.
What are the other benefits of traceability? There is a cost implication, but the return on investment is fast and the added value it brings will sustain a business for the future, long after the initial outlay has been recouped. In many situations the original investment could be repaid within 12 to 18 months.
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