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FOOD & BEVERAGE


retailer or food processor receiving a shipment and back to the field where the produce was grown, and at all the steps in between. In a food safety incident, batch-level


traceability allows farms to precisely identify which suppliers have received their stock. It also enables retailers and processors to determine from where a compromised product may have come. Implementing batch-level traceability for


PROTECTING BATCHES AND BRANDS


Adem Kulauzovic, Director of Automation, Domino Printing Sciences, explores what compulsory traceability would mean and highlights why food and beverage manufacturers should adopt solutions today


to facilitate recalls and protect consumer safety increase. So, what would compulsory traceability mean? How might traceability record keeping, and in particular batch-level coding, play a crucial role in the swift and accurate withdrawal of unsafe food? The last decade has seen a marked


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increase in regulatory traceability requirements aimed at protecting consumers. Item-level serialisation for patient safety is now a regulatory requirement in many industries, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco products. Manufacturers in all sectors should prepare for further regulations necessitating item- and batch-level traceability. The food industry, in particular, is a prime


candidate for regulation. Consumer safety is one of the driving forces behind product traceability, with the need to recall products from sale quickly and accurately following a food safety incident. Product traceability via coding and marking


can provide a method for keeping track of food in the supply chain to support the quick and efficient recall of affected products when required. If a situation necessitates a product recall, growers, processors, and manufacturers can utilise product codes to identify which products or batches have been affected and track where items have been sent. This helps limit the scope of a recall,


t seems that compulsory product traceability may be imminent for food and beverage manufacturers as global efforts


minimises waste, and reduces the time it takes to resolve the issue without compromising consumer safety. Without traceability records, food safety


incidents may necessitate nationwide recalls ensuring that all affected products are withdrawn from sale. Such was the case in the US in 2018 with an outbreak of E. coli linked to the sale of romaine lettuce. At the time, FDA attempts to trace the source of the E. coli outbreak were hampered by poor traceability records, leading to nationwide recalls. Indeed, a 2021 report on the economic


impact of the E. coli outbreak estimated that the total cost of pulling all harvested romaine from the supply chain was approximately USD 20.6 million, with additional costs of USD 37.3 million from wasted stock that could not be harvested or sold[i]. Food recalls can also cause serious harm to a brand’s image, leading to lost sales long after a food safety incident has passed. The prospect of implementing additional


manufacturing processes to enable traceability might sound costly. Indeed, item- level serialisation, such as that required in the pharmaceutical sector in many countries, has come at a high cost to businesses, but not all traceability measures have to cost the earth. For low-value, high-yield food products,


including fresh fruit and vegetables, traceability can be facilitated at the batch level using unique labels on cases and pallets. This batch-level labelling provides a chain of custody, trackable forwards to the exact


36 DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | PROCESS & CONTROL


fresh food can also help protect brands and consumers from the risk of food fraud – specifically foods contaminated with undeclared additives, also known as ‘food adulteration’. Food adulteration can emerge when fraudulent raw materials contaminate legitimate supply chains, putting both businesses and consumers at risk. The risk of food adulteration is particularly


prevalent today, with widespread supply chain issues and raw materials shortages. When raw materials are in short supply, brands may look beyond their regular approved suppliers to complete their supply chain, making them a target for substandard or fake alternatives. As with all counterfeit products, counterfeit


raw materials can lead to loss of brand revenue and consumer trust if their use results in a noticeably substandard final product. Not only that, but fraudulent foodstuffs can pose a serious health risk if unidentified allergens or hazardous materials are inadvertently added to food products. Some of the most counterfeited products


include: olive oil – fraudulent oil products diluted with substandard or lower value oil may contain hidden allergens (for example, nut oils) or oils that are not fit for human consumption, and milk – watered down, substandard milk products have been found to contain melamine, a high-protein compound known to cause kidney problems. Batch-level traceability can help brands


mitigate some of the risk of counterfeits and food adulteration, as it requires suppliers to provide supply chain data on individual batches of ingredients at the point of supply and delivery. This information can then be aggregated into each additional step of the supply chain to give an audit trail of individual batches of ingredients and provide a deterrent to anyone seeking to contaminate a product or ingredient. Beyond compliance and consumer safety,


the end-to-end traceability of food and beverage products also presents an opportunity for brands to enable greater data exchange with retailers, suppliers, and consumers. The information can also be passed on to the consumer via scannable 2D codes, for improved engagement and brand positioning. [i] https://kiesel.ucdavis.edu/Full%20Report.pdf


Domino Printing Sciences www.domino-printing.com


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