The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act completely changed how members of the food manufacturing supply chain approach traceability. To keep pace with these changes and stay prepared for audits, you need modern food traceability software.
The question is, how do you find the right food traceability systems for your organization? Here’s everything you need to know.
Introduction to Food Traceability Software
Food safety traceability software refers to cloud-based solutions designed to help the food industry achieve and maintain compliance with FSMA traceability requirements. You can use this tool to achieve real-time inventory management, store product information, and share these insights with other members of the supply chain.
The best food safety traceability software also integrates with other business tools, such as barcode scanning equipment, to provide a holistic view of the flow of goods into and out of your inventory. Adopting a modern platform will help you better monitor the food supply chain, keep track of the raw materials used in food production, and promote consumer safety.
Perhaps most importantly, food safety traceability software solutions also streamline important batch and unit tracking processes, saving time and reducing the risk of human error. Maintaining accurate and up-to-date records is foundational to achieving end-to-end traceability and ensuring compliance with FDA regulations.
Benefits of Food Traceability Software
Adopting the right software helps you centralize traceability data and streamline workflows. With a solution like rfxcel in your corner, you can achieve benefits such as:
Improved Transparency
The FSMA outlines strict record-keeping requirements, which are designed to support expedited product recalls in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak. Moreover, these provisions are intended to increase consumer trust and ensure real-time visibility into where food products originated from.
Food safety traceability software supports these objectives by integrating with other platforms, including your ERP system, and creating a holistic view of your supply chain. The best food traceability software offers value-added management features like lot tracking and recall management, giving you even better insights into your production process.
Simplified Compliance
Adopting robust software will assist with FSMA produce safety rule compliance. Solutions that offer customizable functionality can be tailored to the unique needs of food businesses, whether they be distributors, suppliers, or retailers.
At a glance, you can track down expiration dates, batch numbers, and more. Should you face an audit or encounter an outbreak, you can use this data to deliver prompt notifications to the FDA and any impacted retailers.
Optimized Visibility
Quality control requires end-to-end visibility into your supply chain. With a food traceability platform, you can implement custom quality assurance protocols and maintain a holistic view of your operations to ensure that those protocols are being followed. Ultimately, these capabilities will promote better supply chain management while enhancing consumer trust in your brand.
Increasing visibility will also support your company’s long-term health and success. You can use real-time insights to identify inefficiencies in your entire supply chain and improve inventory control strategies. By combining the information from your food safety traceability modules with data from your ERP software, you can transform your business into a flexible and resilient organization.
Enhancing Food Safety With Traceability
Food traceability software isn’t just great for regulatory compliance and supporting your stakeholders. It’s also an excellent tool for promoting safety. With robust software, you can achieve the following:
Streamline Recalls
Tracking down the origins of allergens and contaminants represents one of the toughest parts of issuing a recall. Historically, food manufacturers have been forced to “cast a wide net,” which can lead to unnecessary panic and tremendous product waste. However, with the help of food traceability software, you can issue more targeted recalls without compromising safety.
Accelerating the recall process will help curb the spread of foodborne illnesses and minimize the risk of reputational damage. You can also collaborate with retailers and the FDA by quickly disseminating important information about affected products.
Enforce Quality Control Standards
Quality management requires real-time visibility and accurate inventory records. Having the right tools in place enables you to monitor everything from when goods arrive to how long they sit at your warehouse. Increasing visibility will help improve freshness and reduce spoilage, both of which are great for your bottom line.
Mitigate Risks
Food safety traceability software is a risk mitigation tool. It allows you to safeguard your business, trade partners, and customers from the dangers of spoiled food or lax quality control processes.
By increasing your understanding of key workflows, you’ll achieve unprecedented oversight of business operations. This has become increasingly important amid supply chain disruptions and other uncertainties.
Key Features of Food Traceability Systems
Leading food traceability software offers numerous features, including the following:
Barcode Labeling
Labeling represents one of the fundamental requirements of the FSMA. You must label each unit and track goods as they progress through your segment of the supply chain. More importantly, you are required to maintain records of these transactions for auditing and quality control purposes.
Top software solutions provide a means of collecting and storing this data. The best platforms also streamline label creation.
Batch Tracking
The FDA has implemented batch-tracking requirements as well. These help trace food from manufacturers to distributors and retailers. If a batch is contaminated, regulators will use this information to track down and recall products that may pose a risk to consumers.
Solutions like rfxcel facilitate custom batch tracking. We make it possible for you to track every single shipment and maintain flawless digital records.
Real-Time Monitoring
Thanks to integrations with your ERP software, rfxcel’s food safety traceability solution offers real-time monitoring capabilities. You can track inbound and outbound shipments as they progress through the supply chain.
Reporting Tools
Creating a lean supply chain requires actionable insights. With that in mind, leading food safety traceability software includes robust reporting tools that provide both high-level and granular data about your business.
Technological Innovations in Traceability
Several advancements have accelerated the development of food safety traceability software, including blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT). Blockchain provides a tool for creating accurate, immutable records of transactions, thereby ensuring transparency and trustworthiness. The IoT includes frontline internet-connected tools like barcode scanners and RFID devices.
Cumulatively, these tools have helped to promote a more nimble and reliable food tracing infrastructure. As you explore traceability solutions for your business, make sure to prioritize platforms that embrace these and other advancements.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
U.S. food traceability regulations primarily focus on items found on the FDA’s Food Traceability List. If you manufacture, process, hold, distribute, or pack any items on the FTL, the FSMA applies to your business.
Among other regulations, you must document critical tracking events (CTE) and retain key data elements about these occurrences. Some CTEs include harvesting, cooling, initial packing, and receiving. This is not a comprehensive list of requirements. You’ll need to review the entire FTL and FSMA final rule to fully understand your organization’s obligations under the act.
Implementation Strategies and Best Practices
Successfully adopting food traceability software requires a three-stage approach. First, be transparent with your team about what’s happening and why you are implementing a new platform. Get them involved in the process early on to reduce change resistance.
As you begin the rollout, offer comprehensive training to ensure your team members are confident using the new tech. Put additional support staff in place to assist with any challenges that may arise, and ensure that the technology can be scaled out across your entire supply chain.
Additionally, it’s important to consider compatibility with your existing technology, specifically your ERP software. Integrating your food tracing platform with your ERP will provide optimal efficiency and transparency.
Future Trends and Emerging Technologies
Looking ahead, emerging tech like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics will undoubtedly reshape the food supply chain. Through the use of AI, you can automate key tracing protocols, save time, and promote better efficiency. Predictive analytics will shed light on threats to food safety and help you proactively mitigate them to reduce waste.
While you don’t have to be the first adopter of these and other emerging technologies, it’s important to keep your operations modernized and agile. Otherwise, you risk giving up ground to the competition.
Choosing the Right Traceability Solution
Generally, there are three factors to consider before selecting a food traceability software: customizability, vendor reputation, and scalability. The best platforms can be tailored to align with your unique needs. They also offer nearly limitless scalability by leveraging cloud-based infrastructure and a flexible architecture.
Perhaps most importantly, you need to find a vendor that understands the nuances of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Organizations like rfxcel specialize in helping our clients meet traceability regulations via dynamic, industry-specific solutions. When the future of your organization is on the line, rfxcel delivers.
Partner With rfxcel
Would you like to learn more about the benefits and capabilities of food safety traceability software? If so, we invite you to schedule a demo of rfxcel, the customizable tracking solution designed specifically for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical supply chains. Contact our team to book your demo.
