Prove your innocence
The news industry is abuzz with stories about tainted foods and recalls. Most companies would rather not have their names in those headlines. To avoid this, you have to “prove your innocence”.
The FDA requires that food and beverage manufacturers trace their products one step forward and one step back. Where did it come from and where did it go? In 2005, the requirement became more stringent – you must produce the information on any recalled lot within four hours.
You can be audited on this requirement at any time. Sometimes it’s the government. Sometimes it’s the retailer that sells the product and wants to guarantee its purity. Either way, you need to produce precise information in very short order.
The problem is that you may not control all the data. Some of the data may come from feed lots. Other data may come from veterinarians. Additional data may come from various testing labs. Additional data may come from your own manufacturing process. Most of the data is not captured by the ERP system.
How do you manage all that data? The short answer is: Lawson’s Trace Engine. The Trace Engine brings all the data into one place and organizes it. You can quickly assemble a composite picture of what happened to a given production lot. You can quickly determine if there’s a problem and, if so, what to do about it. You can also identify where the lot came from and where it went. Just as quickly, you can prove your innocence.
The Trace Engine doesn’t stop with one-step-forward/one-step-back. It can trace ingredients through multiple steps – all the way back to the beginning. This is important because many manufacturers have discovered that there’s an advantage in going beyond the minimum requirements of the law. What if you could trace the ingredients back to their source and guarantee that the food you’re processing is organic, pure, healthy, and happy? You could get a premium for it.
The Label Rouge program in France is an example of a premium branding system for fish, poultry, and meat. To qualify, you have to prove that your animals were raised in “traditional” style, organically and without hormones, antibiotics, or “industrial” conditions. It’s not easy to qualify for Label Rouge. You have to assemble data from many different sources – most of which would not be found in standard ERP systems. But there’s a major benefit: products with the Label Rouge sell for roughly twice the price of “commercial” products. The Trace Engine can help reduce the cost of qualifying and shorten the lengthy process of qualifying.
How do we know so much about this? One of our customers became the first company to gain the Label Rouge for salmon from Norway. Bon appetit!
As its name implies, The Lawson Opinionizer offers opinions. We believe we've got our facts straight but we don't guarantee it. A new Opinionizer appears every Monday. If you have an opinion, send an e-mail to Opinionizer@lawson.com
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