Traceability in food industry

Overview

In the etymological sense, "traceability" is to "trace", which in figurative sense is a "mark left by an event." Tracer is also "indicate the way forward" or "mark the contours.

The word "traceability" is relatively recent in the French language, and is since 1998 in the Petit Robert, which defines it as "the possibility of identifying the origin and to reconstruct the route (a product), since its production to its dissemination. "

ISO 9000: 2000 defines traceability as "the ability to find the history, implementation or location of what is considered".

It is therefore a process which includes the opportunity to trace the different stages of life and places a product from its creation until its destruction. In other words, traceability can identify, for a product:

• all stages of its manufacture,
• the origin of its components and their suppliers,
• where the product and its components have been stored,
• checks and tests on the product and its components,
• equipment used in manufacturing or handling,
• direct customers who bought the product.

Traceability is a concept that can be applied to all sectors: chemical, pharmaceutical, automobile, etc.. But in this article, we will focus particularly on traceability in the food industry, which is currently component of ensuring food safety.

Terms and definitions

Barcode

system identification and management with a number of figures bearing product information such as country code, the identifier of the company, the identifier of the article, etc ....

EAN

(European Article Number): European standard for identifying commercial products with a bar code.

Identification

Unique correspondence between a reference or identifier and a lot, a unit of product, an actor, an activity or place.

Lot

Number of units of a product with identical characteristics which has been produced and / or manufactured and / or packaged under practically identical.

Traceability

The ability to find the history, implementation or location of what is discussed.

Traçabilité bottom

It allows all stages of product life cycle, from a lot or unit of product, find the history and origin of the consignment. From the point of view of a sector, the related data should seek to trace the product to raw materials.

Tracking down

It allows all stages of product life cycle to find the destination of a lot or unit of product. From the point of view of a sector, the related data should aim to descend from upstream to the finished product.

Reminder

Operation aimed to stop the consumption of defective products, when there is a proven risk or potential consumer.

Withdrawal

Operation aims to halt the marketing of defective products by the withdrawal of product from the market.

(Radio Frequency IDentification) RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification)

It is an identification system consisting of radio-frequency tags (chips), antennas to receive signals and decoders built into the system for reading data.

Traceability: regulatory and normative

Following the various health crises the world has known in recent years (mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, avian influenza), the traceability of foods has become essential to prevent the movement of food can affect the health of the consumer. C ' is that legislators and standardization bodies have developed a series of regulations and standards that require or encourage the adoption of traceability as critical to food safety.

The regulatory side has been marked by the adoption by the European Parliament in 2002, of EC Regulation 178/2002 laying down the general requirements of food security and establishes the European Food Safety Authority. This regulation, which became mandatory from¹January 2005, requires the traceability of food, feed, food-producing animals and any other substance intended to be incorporated into or may be incorporated in food or feed. This regulation defines the results but does not afford to be implemented so that:

• Ensure the traceability of food, feed, food-producing animals and substances used in food manufacturing.
• Identify suppliers of food and feed business.
• Identify companies that have provided products of food and feed business.
• Label and identify the food and feed.

The normative side was marked by the publication of the international standard ISO 22000 (management system of food safety) in September 2005. This standard, which can serve as a basis for certification, requires the company to establish, in addition to the PRP and HACCP, a system of traceability. Under this standard, the traceability system should identify the suppliers of inputs and the direct customers of finished products.

Other countries, including those who have commercial relations with countries of the European Union, have also established standards for traceability to align with international requirements in this area. Morocco, for example, has developed the standard Moroccan NM 08.0.012 which is a reference document outlining the objectives of traceability and can be grouped into 2 separate items: Knowing the history is as complete as possible of a product and permit the withdrawal and / or product recall crisis.

Roles of traceability

Traceability is a regulatory requirement and standard crucial for the safety of particular foods in the prevention of risks in case of crisis. It should allow companies to quickly find the origin of non-compliance in order to remedy this situation and make withdrawals or recalls of products at the detection of non-compliance. In addition, traceability is also a quality that can bring much to the company.

Trace the origin of the problem: upward traceability

Traceability makes it possible to find the origin of a product. It may therefore be useful to find the causes of malfunction of the product and avoid it renews. It also helps ensure the geographical origin of the product. It is therefore in a step of progress for the company.

For traceability be conducted in the most efficient product traceability is required to identify the product, but also tracking data to find the causes of failure during processing.

Make withdrawals and recalls lots: tracking down

Traceability allows the company to act more quickly in the event of detection of non-conformities. Indeed, depending on the accuracy of the location of the products, procedures for recall or withdrawal may vary considerably. Thus, if the destinations are known productions and recorded accurately, it can save time for the company.

Other roles of traceability

Beyond obtaining compliance with regulatory requirements and standards, traceability is seen as a means of improving the internal management and has many benefits to food businesses:

• Reduce the economic risks associated with a traceability system fails;
• Strengthen the sense of openness and closeness felt by the consumer;
• Identify potential sites of contamination;
• Better inventory management: by accounting for inputs and outputs of raw materials and outgoing finished products;
• Better management of the quality system: by recording the checks throughout the production, and the rapid identification of effective remedial action;
• Better management of production through the exploitation of data on traceability.

Traceability is also an asset for a supplier that has a reliable system, and who wants to stand out against its competitors.

Methodology of implementation of traceability

It is noted that there is no ideal model for traceability to be applied to all sectors of the industry. It is therefore advisable to establish, track by track and depending on risks, tracking which takes into account the following factors: the size of the enterprise and the importance of production, consumer requirements and regulations.

The steps outlined below, is based on logical reasoning and can be applied to all food businesses in the context of the implementation of a traceability project.

1. Designate a project manager

The success of any project depends largely on its driver. It is therefore essential to assign responsibility for the project of tracing a person who has the necessary skills, but it also has a deep knowledge and a global vision of the organization. In these conditions, the quality manager is the person best placed to perform that task.

The mission of the project will be traced in the first place:

• The preparation of the scope of the proposed traceability;
• Define the means for its implementation;
• The appointment of the members of the team and traceability
• to ensure the implementation of the project traceability.

Finally, the head traceability aims to ensure the implementation of traceability at all stages and ensure that it remains effective.

2. Describe the scope of the project traceability

At this stage, the team must define traceability products, and possibly the production sites that are concerned with traceability.

3. Establish manufacturing diagrams

This is the team that traceability should be instructed to prepare such a diagram, which will include all phases of operations. On these diagrams, it should be clear all the stages where there is inclusion of raw materials, ingredients or packaging.

If these diagrams are already in place, under an existing quality system (eg HACCP), the team must ensure they are up to date and change them if necessary.

4. Determine the list of manufacturing inputs and finished goods

Starting diagrams previously established manufacturing, the team must prepare a list of all raw materials, ingredients, packaging, intermediate products and finished products. This is to no input from escaping to the identification.

5. Identify manufacturing inputs and finished goods

Identify a product, give it a code or lot number, which allows to describe and to define clearly, in particular as regards:

• Designation;
• Origin;
• Its supplier;
• The date of receipt (for ingredients and packaging) or manufacturing (for intermediate products and finished products) and
• equipment and machinery (production line), used in its manufacture (in the case of intermediate products and finished products).

The identification must include the entire list of inputs, intermediate products and finished products identified in the previous step. In addition, it must cover all lines and equipment used to develop the product. The work is finalized by the drafting of an identification procedure.

It is recommended to allocate lot numbers uniform, easy to understand, logical, and that all operators understand the meaning.

  ***** The identification and registration are the support of traceability ***** 

6. Define traceability scheme

Again, this is not to establish a procedure for traceability, but it is to think through a registration system which, in combination with the procedure of identification, we will trace the history lover and downstream of a particular product. Thus, the success of traceability depends primarily on the cohesion of the registration system while taking account of the identification procedure adopted.

A traceability scheme is to establish relationships between fields of different records so that each entry or exit of the scheme will, seamless way to the other input or output. On the registers, inputs and outputs are expressed as a lot number, line or team.

The traceability scheme should be reasonable so that in case of crisis, the identification and registration are able to provide all the necessary elements for:

• Determine the causes of the problem;
• Define batches of raw materials, inputs and intermediate products which were used to achieve the finished product;
• Define batches of finished product suspected of being affected by the problem;
• Locate the clients served;
• Determine the amount distributed and the quantity in stock of a finished product.

7. Prepare documents for registration of traceability

On the basis of the traceability scheme, the team must focus on the development of the various registers required for traceability, taking into account the existing one. It is important that these records are associated with the control activity and existing management. This is to:

• maximize the number of documents relating to the traceability;
• maximize the number of operators responsible for collecting and writing (or seizure) information relating to traceability;
• have effective traceability and consistent with the quality and management of existing stocks.

The registration documents of traceability can be:

• Good reception;
• Sheets control the receipt of raw materials, ingredients and packaging;
• Orders preparation of orders;
• Sheets monitoring critical control points;
• Recording of maintenance and equipment maintenance;
• Delivery;
• etc..

However, nothing prevents to create, if necessary, documents that are used for traceability.

8. Train operators

The training of operators responsible for collecting and writing (or seizure) information traceability is essential for a successful project traceability. The training will focus on the following aspects:

• the importance of traceability;
• the identification procedure and
• how to collect and record information on traceability.

9. Run the project traceability

At this stage, we must implement the traceability system in place.

10. Check the operation of the traceability system

We can use methods and procedures for verification and audit to determine if the traceability system works properly and correct any deficiencies detected. Such checks should be conducted frequently enough to confirm the proper functioning of the system. For example it should:

• review the system of traceability and the records associated therewith;
• a test of upward and downward traceability take random samples of several batches of finished product and trace their history to:
  • Find lots of ingredients used;
  • Find lots of packaging used;
  • Find lots of raw materials used;
  • Find quality recordings on these lots (surveillance of critical interventions on the machines, control of the finished product, etc.).
  • Find that they are the clients served;
  • looking ramifications due to the raw material ingredients and packaging. Ie:
    • Find lots of finished product which are manufactured from the same batch of raw material;
    • Find lots of finished product which are manufactured from the same batch of packing;
    • Find lots of finished product which are manufactured from the same batch of ingredients.

Save the results of audit and make the necessary readjustments.

Supports traceability

The choice of medium traceability refers to the freedom of choice of operators to adopt a particular system that is most suited to the particular sectors, modes of production and distribution of goods and the volume of business activity. There are two types of support traceability: the paper and computer support. This may possibly be coupled with an identification as the bar code or "smart label.

Paper

Using a paper system is a solution that can be used by a company in order to justify its traceability to its customers.

The documents, written in advance and then validated by the various heads of services, are usually in the form of form for the operator. The size should be optimized in order to gather much information.

This solution suitable for small structures for which the number of recording is reduced. In the case of large structures, the paper has the disadvantage of being difficult to manage given the high number of cards and must be kept for a long time (at least during the lifetime of the product).

Computer Support

The use of the computer system for the management of traceability has the advantage to overcome the disadvantages of the paper. It enables easy management of records without regard to the duration of their conservation.

The effectiveness is further enhanced when coupled with an identification as barcode or RFID. The use of such an identification system replaces manual data entry on the computer keyboard and eliminates the errors due to typing.

The barcode

This is a marking system consisting of a succession of bars and spaces of different lengths that correspond to the numeric or alphanumeric data. This type of coding is always associated with a scanning device such as a pen The laser gun, the scanner or shower.

There are several types of barcodes, including: the Code 39, Code 2 of 5, code MONARCH (CODABAR), Code 11, Code 93, Code 128, Code 49, PDF 417 code, the code 1 and the EAN. The most used are the type of barcode EAN. This is an international standard for coding, there are many standards the most widespread is the EAN 13: it consists of 13 figures representing the national indicative, the manufacturer code and the product, complemented by a key control.

Using a bar code allows the manufacturer to identify each unit is a lot of its production. It also allows the retailer to manage its inventory more easily and avoid problems of broken or markdowns.

RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification)

RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) or radio frequency identification, is based on the following principle: Any object can have small markers (bullets) that provide added information to the playback device that requests by radio waves. This information is contained on the marker and can be used for tracking inventory and traceability of products. This system is also called "smart labels".

There are 3 types of tags:

• The label read-only: it contains data entered by the manufacturer and which can not be amended or supplemented thereafter.
• The label write once, read many times: it contains the data recorded by the first user and can be read but may not be amended or supplemented.
• The tag read / write multiple: unlike the previous one, it can be written several times, deleted, modified, supplemented and read several times.

The applications of smart tags are still not widely available in food industries. This is due mainly to cost, since this material is unsuitable for products that are low value added, as is the case for most food products.

Constraints

The weakest in terms of traceability primarily upstream of the product. The weakness of this link is mainly due to the mode of supply of raw material when it relates to one of the following situations:

• Small farms resulting in limited supply and therefore a variety of lots;
• Lack of organization of producers;
• Actions of some operators to purchase products in markets or from the collection of spontaneous production, which also leads to the diversity of lots of unknown origin;
• Actions of some processing units to supply to middlemen, thus resulting in a mixture of quality of different origins;
• Low upstream-downstream integration and the absence of contractual relations between producers and processors.

The manufacturing method can also be a constraint to the implementation of traceability. We cite as an example the case of the preparation of pickles and capers which must be added several times a quantity of brine to maintain favorable conditions for their maturation. This leads to a finished product containing fragments of several lots of salt, hard to find.