SECTOR REPORT
FOOD SAFETY
4 KEY FOCUS AREAS
FOR FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURERS Having the right technological capabilities will aid organizations in minimizing risk, maximizing efficiency and ensuring the right processes and procedures are in place.
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nsuring food safety and quality and staying compliant with everchanging regulatory requirements are chief business concerns for food and beverage manufacturers and processors. Food and beverage companies are required to adhere to strict regulations in addition to achieving certain levels of certification. Some examples of groups and documentation that detail these regulations and certifications include: • British Retail Consortium (BRC). The BRC Global Standards provides food retailers with a common approach to supplier auditing. • FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 (CFR). Title 21 is the portion of the Code of Federal Regulations that governs food and drugs within the United States for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). • Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Signed into U.S. law in 2011, it was the first major overhaul to food safety legislation since 1938. The act covers all aspects of data capture, retention and inspection capabilities. The FDA is proposing to establish
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additional traceability recordkeeping requirements (beyond what is already required in existing regulations) for organizations that manufacture, process, pack or hold foods designated for inclusion on the Food Traceability List. • Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). The GFSI is a private organization based in Belgium that maintains a scheme to benchmark food safety standards. • Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). GMP regulations are set by the FDA. • Safe Quality Food (SQF). SQF is a rigorous and credible food safety and quality certification program recognized by retailers, brand owners and foodservice providers worldwide. Processes and procedures must be in place to manage food safety and traceability, and to reduce the risk of costly food safety recalls or regulatory infractions. But, organizations also must have the flexibility to respond to changing regulatory requirements. The ability to track products and ingredients both upstream and
downstream—from raw ingredients to the finished goods and back—is imperative. Data from every point in the supply chain must be recorded to provide an audit trail. Modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can help organizations succeed in this regard, and key capabilities in five key areas of focus will help food and beverage processors succeed.
Recipe management Each recipe ingredient not only impacts the taste of the product, but also the nutritional value—a metric monitored strictly by numerous governmental regulatory agencies. A unique feature food and beverage processors need from their ERP system is the ability to identify specific nutritional values that result from the composition of a recipe, referred to as a Bill of Material (BOM). Think of this in terms of the nutritional label required on all food products. For some companies, this is “simply” a matter of composing a formula and determining the nutritional values based on the ingredients in the formula. For others (further up the food chain), the
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