Food Safety and Quality Assurance Technologies
For the food production chain, besides the strict selection of sanitary equipment and fresh &healthy raw materials, it is also vital to an integral and effective inspection of the whole production line.
Over the past two decades, technologies (supply chain software solutions) were playing an irreplaceable role in food safety & quality assurance (FSQA) and have become the mainstream in food manufacturing operations due to the obvious ROI (return on investment) they provided. Their participation has saved a large amount of time and money and greatly increased efficiencies. For this reason, today we are seeing strong growth in web-based FSQA solutions.
The emerging FSQA technologies can be defined into two categories: Track & Trace and Food Safety Chain Management. The track & trace focuses primarily on reaction. It provides a contribution in quick tracing on ingredients and finished goods which have “left the building” and must be withdrawn or recalled after a problem has been detected.
The food safety chain management focuses primarily on prevention. It helps to prevent non-compliant materials & ingredients from coming in and non-compliant finished goods from going out. To realize the above goals, it may include the following steps:
- Task scheduling and prompting to review Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) program monitoring, and other tasks.
- Real-time collection of FSQA test results and data from an unlimited global supplier network
- Real-time analysis of all results against regulatory, non-regulatory, and customer-driven specifications and requirements.
- Real-time generation of Certificates of Analysis (COA) when results pass or automatic issuance of alerts triggering corrective actions when necessary.
- Time & date stamping of all records and documentation.
- Performance trending tracing against key performance indicators from a central repository of FSQA data.
With the help of FSQA solutions, food manufacturers are able to protect their market values and brands.
