Food & Beverage News: F&B Specials - Tracing the foodsteps

In the recent years food safety incidents and food scares have been increasing and consumer confidence dwindling. Recent food scares have demonstrated that the identification of the origin of food and feed is of prime importance for the protection of consumers. The recent case in the US of Salmonella in peanuts resulted in over 300 product recalls, but an interesting factor was that these recalls took place over a 3 month period, indicating that it took many weeks for some suppliers to realise that their products contained peanuts from the contaminated batches.

A food traceability system enables us to follow the movement of any food product by documentation through each point of food handling. When an incident occurs, the food traceability system could assist in the recall of the food products in question and assist in the investigation of the cause. Also transmitting and verifying the relevant information would contribute to increasing reliability on the information of the label, and thus enable consumers to purchase food with a sense of security.

In 1700 BC, Mesopotamian shepherds marked animals with different colours and in the 7th century, Chinese used tattoos to identify the breed of horses. In 1875, US livestock were marked with tags.

What is Traceability?
Traceability is not the product information itself, but it is a tool that makes it possible to trace this information through the food supply chain.

Internationally, the definition of food traceability was set at the 27th Session Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Alimentarius Commission Geneva, Switzerland, 28 June - 3 July 2004, Paragraph 17-20.

"The ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stage(s) of production, processing and distribution."

Why is traceability necessary?
Consumers have always shown an interest in where their food comes from, how it is produced and if it is healthy and safe. In the past, when consumers produced their own food within small communities, this information was readily available. But in the course of the human society, consumers have become increasingly 'detached' from food production, and from this information about their food. Legislative measures, rules, regulations are continually being put in place to try to protect the consumer and remedy the situation.

Nowadays, in the globalisation era:
■ Our food comes from all parts of the planet.
■ Old food borne diseases are expanding; new food pathogens and chemical risks are emerging resulting in huge economic losses.
■ Traceability is a risk-management tool which allows food business operators or authorities to withdraw or recall products which have been identified as unsafe. It is a cornerstone of any food safety system. In particular, traceability helps facilitate the withdrawal of food and enables consumers to be provided with targeted and accurate information concerning implicated products. Traceability does not itself make food safe. It is a tool, not a solution, to be used in order to assist in containing a food safety problem.

In addition to meeting regulatory requirements, food businesses have realised wide range of benefits having implemented good traceability systems;
■ Traceability is a way of responding to potential risks that can arise in food and feed, to ensure that all food products are safe for consumers to eat.
■ It is vital that when national authorities or food businesses identify a risk they can trace it back to its source .
■ In addition, traceability allows targeted withdrawals and the provision of accurate information to the public.
■ Past food crises, such as dioxin contamination and BSE, have illustrated the particular importance of being able to swiftly identify and isolate unsafe foodstuffs.

It is important to remember that traceability systems need not be complicated or complex. The best traceability system in any business is one that fits into the normal working practice of the business, and enables the right information to be collated, and then accessed, quickly and easily. Thinking through a practical traceability system carefully can enable any food business get best value from the information they collect within their business.

Having said that, here are some common traceability mistakes that have been encountered;
■ Wrong labels applied to a product
■ Products from sources outside the purview of carrying a particular logo
■ Poor segregation of products where chances of getting mixed in
■ Suppliers selling more products than they are capable of producing

When such deficiencies within a food business are identified, action must be taken immediately to correct these and stop products going to sale.

Types of traceability
■ Internal traceability - is the ability to trace the product information internally in a company.
■ External traceability - is the ability to trace the product information through the links in a supply chain, in other words the product information a company gets and gives away.

Types of data recorded in traceability systems
■ Product data - data about the raw materials, product itself or ingredients (eg species, colour, quality, grade, weight etc)
■ Process data - data of changes that the raw materials underwent to become a finished product; like list of ID's of the raw materials or ingredients that were used to produce a particular batch of product and list of ID's of products and bi-products produced from this batch

Most important aspects to remember are to assign proper IDs and also define what a traceable unit is. If a food business goes wrong here they may end up losing all traceability data of their products. The product flow in a traceability system is one way from the suppliers to manufacturers through to customers/consumers and information flow in a traceability system is both ways back and forth through that chain.

Is testing of traceability system required?
A system which is well documented, developed and implemented to trace all the raw materials which make up the finished products for delivery to the customer is the answer to demonstrate due diligence. Traceability is a legal requirement in few countries and is a vital part of the EU General Food Law (in EC Regulation 178/2002). Traceability requirements for a food product do not only cover the ingredients which make up the finished product but also cover the packaging which many of the food businesses overlook.

Though in India it is not a legal requirement to demonstrate traceability, it is recommended as a good practice to demonstrate due diligence. When things go wrong, having the assurance that the traceability system works efficiently;
■ Protects a company's brand reputation
■ Gives consumers confidence on food safety

Testing the traceability system on a regular basis will;
■ Give an idea whether the system does or does not work
■ Provides an insight of any gaps in the system which could make the business susceptible to possible prosecution
■ Demonstrate how quickly raw materials and ingredients can be traced through the system
■ Provide data so affected batches of products could be isolated and quarantined
■ Provide information of the supply chain from raw materials to customers and from customers to supplier of raw materials. This is forward and backward traceability.

Different terminologies are used in this context. 'Trace' is looking backward from the food business through to raw material suppliers and 'Track' is looking forward from the food business to the customers/consumers.

Traceability system should ideally be tested at least once a year. The test needs to be as real as possible so it may prove useful to involve the co-operation of customers and suppliers within the food chain.

To conduct a traceability test, choose a product at random from either a customer's end or from the distribution warehouse and follow the pathway backwards through from delivery to the customer's warehouse to the receipt of the raw materials to related suppliers. The test should also be done forwards as well

Application of these principals of traceability in Indian
context:
In the Indian context where many food businesses depend largely on physical paper records from raw material suppliers and also further down the food supply chain through consumers, it is recommended that food businesses start with simple, practical traceability systems that work rather than developing sophisticated systems that fail when tested.

The key is to decide on a minimum batch size for the traceability system. In general, the larger the batch size the simpler is the system to operate, but if a recall is initiated in such circumstances, it will be broader and so result in more products being recalled and a huge financial impact subsequently.

The more sophisticated the traceability system the more focused can be any recalls, but the complexity and record keeping will increase significantly.

So the first thing is to recognise that to protect your customers and your brand you need an effective traceability system. The next stage is to decide on the optimum level of sophistication of your traceability system to ensure that it will work when you most need it.

The article is written by Muralikrishna Bujji, Head of Technical Services,
NSF-CMi ,India