Traceability system could have saved cantaloupe melons $13 million
On March 21st, the US FDA announced that 50 American citizens had got sick after eating Honduran cantaloupes. A few hours later, the organization sent an order to halt all cantaloupe shipments from this country to the United States. Doubts exist about where in the supply chain the contamination was produced because it is physiologically impossible for a cantaloupe to have salmonella, the bacterium cannot survive within the fruit.
For this reason, the communication of quality and good production practices attributes on which the region has based its work so tirelessly for so long is not enough anymore. Having a solid traceability productive process becomes vital. Not only working with quality, but also being able to show it. The still ungrounded salmonella alert in Honduran cantaloupes, brought about a significant negative impact in consumers and an important loss of confidence in the product’s brand as well as of money in merchandise and logistics, to the estimated tune of US$13 million. This kind of situation can only be softened by assuring process quality and showing such quality properly and timely through reliable and real-time information.
The appropriate traceability systems, by gathering and managing detailed data on every instance undergone by products, from the farm to the supermarket shelf, prevent loss of time, market image and money, as nobody knows in what farm contamination started, which lots are contaminated and where the products were sent to.
Therefore, the lack of this kind of information entails recalling the goods from every destination they were sent to. Even still, it takes a long time to determine where contamination took place.
FoodTrace is Traceall’s specialised quality management system for the food industry that combines aspects of quality management, traceability and lean manufacturing. It collects, stores, and reports forward and traces backward, mass balances and quality data within and between supply chains, within and throughout the global food industry, in real time.
As a specilaised solution developed entirely for the food industry it is designed to be tailored to each individual food business’s needs. It is a simple and easy to use and effectively replaces pen & paper with no additional investment required in people or equipment. It quickly delivers the required ingredient level information, granularity and complexity to allow you to trace right down to the individual ingredient level, within a batch, within a job, which is essential for traceability and effective product recalls. A web based element enables suppliers and customers access important data - an enormously powerful tool where instantaneous product track and trace is required through the whole food chain.
Benefits
• Promoting right first time production
• Reduce scrapped product, giveaway and off-spec batches
• Execute a product recall more effectively
• Easier record keeping and faster, more accurate information
• Easier to manage multiple product specifications.
• Remove the ‘paper chase’ from the daily work load
• Improved productivity and reduce non-conformance levels.
• Reduce the cost of traceability
Features
• Specialist food solution that is tailored each business requirements
• Simple and easy system to configure to your own business, use and train
• Data collection via PC, PDA, Barcode or RFID
• Control multiple production sites, lines and products
• Ingredient level granularity required for effective traceability and product recall
• Easily trace or track any component, starting at any point and going in any direction – forwards or backwards
• Compliance with regulatory requirements for traceability and food safety¼br /> • Electronic transfer of required food safety information to inspectors, retailers, and suppliers
• Low capital investment – requires no additional people or equipment.
