Archive for January, 2010

Internal, External, and Whole-Chain Traceability

January 26th, 2010

With the increased media publicity of food recalls, consumers are becoming more aware of the importance of food safety and the need for traceability which involves tracing where food products come from and tracking the location or destination of targeted products in the case of a recall.

There are numerous traceability drivers including consumer interest, country of origin concerns, customer demands, food safety issues, brand protection, corporate social responsibility, and government regulations.

In the buzz these days around the concept of traceability, people usually talk about whole-chain traceability which tracks goods through the entire supply chain from source to end user (eg: “farm to fork”, “cradle to grave”).

One component of whole-chain traceability is the tracking of products among trading partners. This external traceability is what the regulations set out by the U.S. (Bioterrorism Act of 2002) and the European Union (1 January 2005, Regulation 178/2002) refer to as “one up/one down” traceability.

Food businesses must be able to provide records of inputs and outputs (i.e. “one-up” and “one-down”) within a reasonable time period. This one-up and one-down rule requires companies to establish and maintain records of the source and destination of products, ingredients, and packaging materials.

Now that these regulations have been in place for some time, the next step being focused on regarding external traceability are standards for interoperability so that trading partners can share information with each other about goods being transferred between their respective organizations.

In most cases, these regulations and discussions assume that internal traceability, the second component of whole-chain traceability, is already in place within companies’ operations. They either don’t mention internal traceability, or they leave individual companies to track products internally. In some cases they make a passing mention of the required linkages from incoming to outgoing products within an organization, but there are no specific requirements related to this aspect.

Many people, including company executives, believe that they have traceability within their organizations.  They have invested considerable money in complex and costly Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and automation systems that are expected to track everything in their company, with traceability as an expected function.

Furthermore, companies have implemented case coding solutions to put bar codes and/or RFID tags onto cases and pallets of finished goods that should be (but may not actually be) scanned by an electronic device.  With these systems in place, it is common for executives to think that they have a good solution for internal traceability.

True internal traceability, however, is quite rare in the North American food industry.  The main reason is that most food companies, including large corporations, simply do not have the systems in place to be able to point to a case of their food products and identify clearly and quickly the specific source or genealogy of the raw materials, ingredients and packaging materials contained in that case by lot number, date received, and supplier. Nor could they take a source material and track it downstream through all stages of production and touch points to order fulfillment.

Whole-chain traceability depends on both external and internal traceability to avoid gaps.  External traceability is currently a hot topic, but without robust internal traceability capabilities, the authenticity of whole-chain traceability is seriously compromised.

Comments Off »

Posted in Industry Trends

Tags:

Welcome

January 19th, 2010

Welcome to the official blog of Carlisle Technology!

Why are we doing this?And why now?

We have a lot to say.

  • We’ve been in business for 25 years, and serving the food industry for 22 years of that. We’ve seen incredible advancements in technology, and we’ve been at the forefront of more than a few of these developments, such as standardized bar codes, touch-industrial workstations, and integrated internal traceability systems.
  • The food industry is changing faster than ever before. Food safety is now a major concern among consumers, as they are being inundated with reports of recalls in the media.  And it’s not just FUD media (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). Consumers are starting to grasp how incredibly complex our global  food supply chain is, and with that complexity comes added risk. Brands are built on trust, and consumers are willing to pay extra for brands that remove the uncertainty of food safety.
  • Niche product categories are expanding, and food processors that address these will be rewarded. Organic foods, locally grown foods, medicine-free meats, allergen-free foods, sustainably grown foods, and animal welfare protected foods are all areas of focus. But will consumers trust that product labeled as medicine-free really is? Integrated food processors should have visibility to ensure compliance, but comprehensive tracking systems that would allow this are still rare. And non-integrated processors must work on interoperable traceability systems to provide this visibility.
  • Governments are responding to consumer demands, and are busy enacting new regulations that will affect the food supply chain.
  • Labels must include the Country of Origin; Nutritional information must be compliant with standards; Allergenic information must be prominent; — All this added complexity requires a regimented label design and approval process to ensure food processors are onside with the law.
  • Traceability requirements of the entire food supply chain is being expanded. The FDA Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires one-up and one-down traceability, but this is only a start.  New regulations are expected to be passed in 2010 that will increase traceability demands
  • Food processors are justifiably concerned about who will pay for this. For some, this will be the cost of doing business. For some, they will be able to provide added value to consumers, and will be able to capture some of this. And for others, they will reap productivity gains by using the added information provided by their traceability systems.

We’re excited about the prospects of the food industry. We love solving problems. And we already have great solutions to address productivity, visibility, and traceability.

Through this blog, you’ll gain some of our insights into events that are changing the industry, hear about some of our experiences in addressing them, and understand how to extract value from traceability solutions.

We hope you follow along!

Comments Off »

Posted in General

Tags: