Enhancing food traceability with automation
Guest blog by MHI member Cimcorp
Traceability is crucial in today’s complex food supply chains. From food producers to distributors to retailers, every party must collect and share traceability data to ensure regulatory compliance, protect consumer health, and enable quick action when a food safety incident occurs.
Warehouses and distribution centers play a key role in tracing a food product’s entire journey from production to consumption. They serve as the link between each step of the supply chain—a position where maintaining accurate documentation of all product movements enables traceability both upstream and downstream. Here, automated order fulfillment solutions are a powerful tool for enhancing traceability within distribution facilities and across the entire supply chain.
Capturing and maintaining traceability data
Today’s automated order fulfillment technologies have completely transformed food distribution, from both an efficiency and food safety standpoint. These solutions not only move food through the supply chain to the store shelf faster than ever before. They also support complete traceability, enabling companies to comply with the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and reliably deliver safe, high-quality food to consumers.
Combining robotic handling technology and advanced software, automated order fulfillment solutions control every step a product takes within a distribution facility. The software automatically captures and maintains vital tracking data—including product origins, batch numbers, and destination information. Plus, automation eliminates the risks of manual data entry errors, ensuring all data is captured accurately and consistently at every step.
These capabilities support critical aspects of food traceability, including the ability to identify batches of food, recognize the source and recipients of food items, and ensure that food information is accurate. In the event of an audit, companies can easily retrieve critical data to demonstrate compliance.
Acting fast to mitigate food safety issues
With comprehensive, easily accessible tracking data, companies can take swift action when food safety issues, withdrawals, or product recalls occur. Food manufacturers, distributors, and retailers can leverage this data to quickly trace, identify, and remove affected batches of products from the supply chain and store shelves. This fast and proactive approach reduces the time and costs associated with managing a food safety crisis, and it ultimately prevents unsafe food products from reaching consumers.
Further enhancing food safety
While establishing and maintaining traceability is essential, it’s not the only way automation can help distribution facilities support food safety. With the right automated solution, facilities can also improve food safety through:
• Simple sanitation: Some automated systems, like gantry-based solutions with floor-based storage, are designed for easy cleaning and sanitation. With no racks or shelving to deal with, robots can completely clear the floor for cleaning in just minutes and make any waste immediately visible. This reduces the risk of contamination and creates a cleaner, safer environment for food handling.
• Optimized storage conditions: Automated systems can maintain ideal storage environments for fresh food. By controlling and monitoring temperature and humidity, automation reduces spoilage, food waste, and delivery failures.
• Rapid handling speed: The longer perishable food takes to move through the supply chain, the greater the risk that it will spoil and become unsafe for consumption. Automated systems accelerate distribution times, directly translating to less spoilage and safer food on store shelves.
Building trust in the food supply chain
As the food supply chain grows increasingly complex, automated order fulfillment solutions are becoming indispensable for supporting food safety. Armed with transparent, accurate data about the origin and movement of all products, food manufacturers, distributors, and retailers can work together to ensure safety and quality across the food supply chain.
