The list of high profile food contamination cases that have led to massive recalls, destruction of tens of millions of dollars worth of food, corporate failures and even consumer deaths, tells us that such incidents, if not inevitable, are at least difficult to contain.

ERP Software

For food manufacturers, ERP is the key to traceability.

There are just too many things that can grow wrong along a long supply chain involving global sourcing and complex processing. Now, though, congressional pressure on the USDA and the FDA has led to far more stringent requirements for food and beverage manufacturers to track and eradicate contamination. There is a death warrant issued for e. coli and the bounty is high. The onus is manufacturers to monitor their supplier’s quality and cleanliness and to employ methods to trace contaminated product back down the supply chain to its source as well as forward to the ultimate consumer. In the case of reported food poisoning, the ability to respond quickly, pinpoint and recall product processed at the same time and place is essential to saving lives, bolstering consumer confidence and stemming financial losses.

Fortunately, the mechanism to accomplish high-level traceability on a minute-by-minute, ingredient-by-ingredient, process-by-process, supplier-by-supplier basis is already in place for most manufacturers. It is the Manufacturing ERP system already integrating all the functions of the enterprise. The key is to implement robust traceability software developed especially with the food processing industry in mind and that fully integrates and leverages the wealth of data also pouring into the manufacturing ERP database. When outbreaks are reported, such software can isolate any quality issues, identify and quarantine all suspect material, not through wholesale destruction but through intelligent, targeted recalls. Conversely, traceability means tracking any problem with a finished product back through every step of processing, supplier and even to which farm produced the raw ingredients. Which piece of equipment and even which operator was involved need to be instantly and accurately available. Food producers need to not only control their own quality but the quality of their suppliers as well. Quality management and supply chain management applications, fortunately, have the functionality to provide such visibility.

Best-of-the-best traceability software provides integrated processes for tracking individual lots, or bins through the manufacturing process, through packaging, shipping and delivery. So even after the trucks have rolled the forward location of any product is known at any time and problems can be pinpointed and dealt with expeditiously. Again, such processes can be highly selective, preventing mass panic and mass destruction when contamination might be limited to a very small portion of a plant’s output. Containers are serialized, packages bar-coded and shipments given RFID tags to permit instant identification both downstream and upstream on the “farm to fork” process. Advanced inventory traceability as part of manufacturing ERP isn’t going to end the scourge of food contamination overnight. But it is a food or beverage manufacturer’s best hope for the type of rapid response that can curtail the impact and, over time, create the foundation for higher and higher levels of product quality and highly compliant manufacturing. The more information food processors have about where and how products become contaminated, the more than can do to prevent such problems.