Safe Travels

Keeping the country’s food safe is a complex, involved task. It seems for every step forward, a half step is taken back. Industry observers say the longer it takes for products to be shipped, coupled with the growing trend toward eating fresh, minimally processed, ready-to-eat food is taxing existing production and distribution systems. Add to this inadequate workforce training, high turnover rates and an aging population and it becomes clear why, despite so many precautions and efforts to tighten regulatory standards, the number of foodborne illnesses has escalated.

Advancements in technology are addressing many of these issues, which is good news. But in other ways technology is also placing additional strain on an already strained system.

“Today’s digital consumers are rewriting the rules for the food industry, forcing both manufacturers and grocers to adapt and transform existing supply chains and business models,” says Randy Evins, senior principal for IVE food, drug and convenience for SAP Retail, based in Walldorf, Germany. These “always on, always connected” consumers, Evins notes, expect personalized services, delivered in real time and right to their doorsteps. 

“Guaranteeing alignment from farm-to-table is challenging existing supply chain solutions, creating a need for a supply chain and business transformation,” says Evins.  

The overall U.S. food and beverage industry is currently faced with some formidable challenges, says Darin Cooprider, vice president, consumer packaged foods for Ryder System, based in Miami. In addition to capital market challenges, Cooprider says the industry continues to face heightened retail expectations for cost and service performance, as well as shifting consumer behaviors toward fresh, organic and healthier alternatives. “These challenges, coupled with the broadest reforms in food safety in the last several decades, have created a dynamic and challenging business climate,” he says.

Officials at Ryder System call the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), passed in 2010, “the greatest change to food safety law since the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was passed in 1938.” They add that the goal of the FSMA is to change the nation’s food safety system from a reactive position to a proactive position with the goal of preventing contamination from occurring in the first place. The food industry is being required to assess the risk for food contamination and take steps to alleviate these risks. The FDA issued rules that make up the critical elements of FSMA: Hazard Analysis and Preventive Controls for both human and animal food; Produce Safety; Intentional Adulteration; Foreign Supplier Verification Programs; and Accreditation of Third-party Auditors; Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA).

While each of these rules will impact different areas of the food supply chain, for the transportation industry, the Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA) will result in the most change. The regulations are the first-ever rules regarding food transportation. In the past, the only requirement of the law was that food had to be transported so that it did not become adulterated. 

“The SFTA creates best practices for safely transporting food and places specific requirements on shippers, carriers, loaders and receivers including general sanitation of vehicles, proper refrigeration, cleaning between loads and the protection of food during transport,” says Steve Alberda, director of safety standards for Ryder System.

While the food safety landscape is dramatically changing, how companies react to this is vital, note observers. “Senior executives in the retail food supply chain will now be personally responsible not only for their company’s compliance with FSMA and FDCA, but also for verifying the compliance of their upstream supply chain,” says Randy Fields, CEO of Park City Group/ReposiTrak, based in Salt Lake City. “We are all aware that the number and frequency of tort claims for foodborne illness is increasing, but with both civil and criminal penalties being applied by the FDA and DOJ, this is a game changer.”  

Many in the foodservice industry are looking at how to better protect the cold chain during transit, specifically making sure that older equipment undergoes rigorous inspection to ensure it meets compliance requirements. “Preventive maintenance plays a critical role in eliminating issues and risk to the food supply during transit,” says Sam Richardson, director of food safety and quality assurance for McLane Co., based in Temple, Texas. 

For example, Richardson says McLane Co. routinely reviews all policies and procedures with an emphasis on food safety risk and how to prevent issues. The company is testing outbound temperature monitoring to ensure product is transported within food safety parameters. McLane is also reviewing the effectiveness of using high-speed doors on trailers as a better solution to maintaining the cold chain during transit.

Compliance with FSMA’s rules, particularly Preventive Controls and Sanitary Transportation, will require new procedures and documentation to prove compliance. Many companies use manual spreadsheets and SharePoint files to manage their food safety activities, which also includes verifying the safe practices of their suppliers. Increasingly, companies are turning to technology to help them automate the management of their documentation and verify compliance. “When the FDA knocks on your door, you have just 24 hours to produce required documentation that can be up to two years old,” says Fields. 

Overcoming obstacles

The emergence of on-demand services has created a need for grocers to process, store and transport food faster than ever before. The challenge, say observers, is getting it done effectively without sacrificing quality or food safety. Doing so requires increased visibility throughout the supply chain—from food manufacturers to product shipment to customer fulfillment. To gain visibility, retailers must move beyond simply gathering data from disparate sources, and instead, analyze and create measurable insights throughout the organization.

“Confidence in existing systems to capture these insights, however, is low among industry leaders,” says Evins, noting that a recent Penton study found that less than 12 percent of retailers are currently confident about their existing predictive systems. “Due to this lack of confidence, many retailers are not leveraging big data to their full advantage—making it nearly impossible to keep up with today’s consumer demands.”

New innovations in food monitoring include embedded sensors that provide data and actionable insights on the transportation and quality of food as it continues its journey down the supply chain. Evins says that if retailers implement individual digital strategies the true connected power of digital solutions, from better merchandising planning to data measuring product freshness on the road via sensors, will be lost. “Incorporating the insights from data from these sensors and other areas contribute to a digital business core, which will increase alignment throughout the supply chain,” he says. 

The ability to “track” and “trace” through IoT-connected technology, note officials at SAP, has increased the accuracy of cold chain monitoring. They say with increased access to real-time information and status of food along the chain, grocers can begin to solve and, in some cases, prevent problems with food quality before they begin. Evins says in earlier supply chain disruptions, a lack of real-time data prevented retailers from monitoring for food safety and containing any potential problem before it could reach a critical mass. “Today, innovations are decreasing costs throughout the supply chain but also improving freshness and safety for customers,” he notes. 

However, some say true traceability from supplier to customer has yet to be achieved. “Readable barcode labels (GS1) are not being applied at all suppliers/manufactures, which is the first step in being able to truly trace through the system,” says Richardson. “It would be an additional cost to suppliers and the distribution network, but is necessary to obtain our goal.”

Observers say advancements in record-keeping technologies that maintain accurate and dependable files on how food is prepared, stored and transported to the retail floor hold the key to remediating the issue. However, one major obstacle is the integration of tools needed to capture real-time data and enforce the management of a food safety culture. “Most foodborne illness stems from the behaviors of individual people,” says John Sammon III, senior vice president and general manager of Intelligent Checklists at ParTech, based in New Hartford, N.Y. “Whether it is the inadequate cooking of proteins, cold food holding, appropriate sanitation or cross-contamination—these all originate from employees not following food safety protocols.” 

Task management tools that use software, hardware and cloud technologies can help hold people accountable for their own food safety behavior, adds Sammon III. “Electronic and intelligent checklists and digital record keeping on mobile, handheld solutions can help manage and influence food safety processes,” he says. “With cloud connectivity, these solutions can be deployed anywhere throughout a business, from warehouses to sales floors, to prompt desired behaviors and provide a detailed, accurate audit trail of completion.”

Fields says ReposiTrak’s Compliance Management System is a one-stop solution for automating the management of and confirming compliance of corporate and supplier food safety documents and/or regulatory records.  

“In our experience, the goal is not to simply store electronic documents, but to confirm their compliance,” he says, noting that ReposiTrak reads inside uploaded documents and compares contents versus requirements to detect inaccuracies and/or misrepresentation. 

To stay a step ahead, observers say industry leaders need to invest in predictive analytical tools that give them deeper and more robust behavioral insights to create a true picture of the end-to-end commerce chain. 

ReposiTrak is launching its Marketplace solution later this summer. The Marketplace enables ReposiTrak retailers and wholesalers to search the system’s supplier community to initiate new business partnerships and drive incremental sales. Fields says once a retailer or wholesaler finds a supplier of interest  the system can collect and review new vendor set up documents, item catalogs and price lists saving time during the on-boarding process.