Food & Beverage Industry
In addition to the Food Safety and Quality focus, Regulations are ever-increasing for the Food & Beverage industry.
Helping the food & beverage industry address traceability
The need to track and trace the movement of food products and their ingredients across the supply chain has become more important than ever. With F&B supply chains now spanning the globe, the associated risks that come with this sourcing model are huge. With each passing day, American consumers are demanding more information at the Point of Sale about the food item before they buy and put it in their bodies. They want to know everything about the food’s ingredients, its quality, impact on health, provenance, environmental impact, social impact, etc. As a result, there is high pressure on F&B companies to ensure they tighten up their supply chains, work more closely with their suppliers, and capture all this information as the ingredients move through the supply chain.
Additionally, the FDA has now stepped in to protect the health of the American consumer and via the FSMA 204 ruling, made it mandatory for food companies dealing in 16 specific food categories to capture traceability info from seed-to-sale. These categories were chosen from a big list of “High Risk Food Items” and are the top 16 foods that have caused the most health issues to the US population in the past.
These changes are driving the need for comprehensive supply chain traceability solutions that can easily tie product movement across the supply chain from seed-to-sale. This is a critical piece to ensure food safety, quality and access to all the additional info needed for the food product as it moves across the supply chain.
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Industry characteristics
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Food Quality & Safety #1 Priority
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Strict Regulatory Compliance
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Massive Transaction Volumes
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Complex Supply Chains
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Changing Consumer Drivers
Food quality & safety is the #1 priority
One of the main concerns for the food and beverage industry is the potential for food contamination which can cause severe illnesses to the consumer. Contamination can occur at any point in the supply chain, from the farm to the processing plant to the retail store. In addition to the risk of consumers falling sick, companies also face the challenge of severely damaging their brand reputation. Without proper traceability systems in place, it can be difficult to identify the source of contamination and quickly remove affected products from the market.
Ever-increasing regulatory compliance
In the US, over 3 Million people die and 48 Million people fall ill every year just from food borne illnesses. These are massive figures and if you factor in the $55 Billion, the annual cost of recalls of poor quality food items, you realize that the F&B industry needs strong controls to ensure that the US consumer is kept safe. As a result the FDA has had to step in and via its FSMA 204 launched a massive regulatory ruling that requires companies dealing with 16 major food categories to ensure their food items are tracked across the supply chain, from seed-to- sale. This compliance will not be possible without the use of comprehensive traceability systems across the entire food supply chain.
Massive transaction volumes
The US has nearly 64,000 supermarkets and grocery stores from where we buy our food products. These stores in turn source their food items from hundred of thousands of suppliers spread across the globe, who then further procure these items from suppliers further upstream. Overall, a few million food entities spread across globe, playing different supply chain roles are involved in servicing the US consumer. For food companies, be it the processors, distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers or others, keeping a track of whats coming in and going out is a massive undertaking which they cannot do without the use of a comprehensive traceability system.
Complex supply chains
In addition to massive transaction volumes, a big concern for the industry is the ever increasing complexity of supply chains. With most food companies now exposed to a large number of foreign suppliers, some of which could be over 10K miles away, tracking the origin and movement of products across the different supply chain steps and ensuring they meet pre-set standards is a mammoth task.
Changing consumer drivers
The new-age consumer is not like anything we have seen in the recent past. Having the same cereal brand for breakfast for over 20 years wouldn't be uncommon for someone a few years back. But that's not the case with the new consumer. As per the market-leading label insight study of consumer behavior, 37% of consumers said they would be willing to switch brands if another brand shared more detailed product information that they could understand. I.e., Brand loyalty now is a thing of the past and consumers are now more focused on buying based on information shared by the food brand, at the Point of Sale.
There isn't one set of information consumers want. It could vary from consumer to consumer, as some could focus on ingredient quality info, their health impact, provenance, etc while others on the environmental impact, supplier ethical practices, social impact, or related topics. Food companies cannot have this information without a proper traceability system that tracks everything from seed-to-sale.
%
37
of consumers would switch brand loyalty
The TagOne Value
Central Regulatory Repository
TagOne is your Single source of truth for all FDA-related traceability data and documents.
Traceability Data Digitization
TagOne will enable you to Capture, Store, and Share relevant traceability data on an “as-needed” basis.
Traceability Reports in Seconds
On a button-click, fetch the TagOne Traceability Map view or Table view report based on Item name/Lot#. This is all you will need in the case of an FDA inquiry.
Traceability Consulting
TagOne is not only your tech traceability platform of choice but our traceability experts will help you navigate this traceability journey every step of the way.