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Food Safety Modernization Act Calls for Traceability in the Food and Beverage Industry

In January of this year, President Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act, and the implications for the food and beverage industry were substantial. A new system of food-safety oversight will be implemented as the act is employed within the industry. The first two rules under this act will take effect on July 3, 2011, with greater implementation to follow.

The first rule gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the right to detain food products that it believes may be contaminated or misbranded. To a food/beverage company, this could mean its product is held out of the marketplace for up to 30 government-mandated days. Companies can avoid this extended hold by having rapid access to information needed to either clear the product or to recall the items that have been contaminated. The implication here is a need for greater traceability along the whole supply chain.

The second rule requires companies to inform the FDA of any country that has refused import of a particular product. This is aimed at tracking foods that may pose health concerns. This rule also creates a need for movement toward traceability. Companies need the ability to track, in real time, where their products came from and where they are currently located.

Compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act will be dependent upon full visibility throughout the supply chain. As a result, many companies will be forced to upgrade their current tracking processes to organize, digitize and make rapidly accessible the dramatically large amounts of data traceability creates. Although this means some time and money on the front end, it is worth the effort in view of the impact recalls and non-conformance could have on an organization’s brand.

RF-SMART, in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics AX, allows companies to address new government regulations with traceability. RF-SMART provides automated data capture for companies who leverage AX capabilities within WMS I and WMS II. With this combination, companies can track movement along the supply chain at the batch or pallet level. The automation of this process cuts down on time and money spent on manual tracking and eliminates costly errors. RF-SMART even provides the opportunity to print tracking labels at the product’s source.

The Aberdeen Group studied the effects the Food Safety Modernization Act will have on the food and beverage industry, and determined that implementation of automated data collection was critical.

“To improve in this area, food and beverage manufacturers should first focus on automated data collection. Food and beverage companies have traditionally underinvested in technology, especially when it comes to automated data collection. Far too often in a manual data collection environment, the data is old and inaccurate, calling into question the validity of conclusions drawn by the analysis. With the advent to new solutions, the opportunity cost for food and beverage companies to not invest in these solutions is significantly higher, considering the impact of non-conformance and recalls on the organization’s brand.” 

Don’t risk non-compliance and recalls in your company; invest in automated data collection with RF-SMART. We add efficiencies to AX for traceability and provide hardware expertise for your personal implementation. For more information, please visit us at http://dynamicsax.rfsmart.com.

You can download this white paper by clicking the link below