As the world has become more interconnected, ensuring the safety of food has become more challenging. Global manufacturers who want to stay competitive must continue to evolve their processes and policies to meet the demands of more complex, global supply chains.
Food supply chains get more complex
Food preferences are dynamic and globalization affects the food supply chain.
The classic cheeseburger provides an excellent example of the complexity of today’s supply chain. When University of Minnesota researchers mapped a large quick-service restaurant chain, they found that each cheeseburger included more than 50 ingredients, such as vinegar, garlic powder, tomatoes, beef, and wheat gluten, sourced from countries in every continent of the world except the Arctic.
How globalization introduces food safety challenges in the supply chain
The complexity of today’s global food supply chains adds to the challenges of ensuring food safety. Contamination can occur at any point in the food supply chain. Extended and fragmented global supply chains make the traceability and authentication of foods more difficult.
As such, despite a decline in food-related outbreaks and illnesses, food safety recalls are a continued risk. These factors call for new approaches to improve food production and processing, strengthening collaboration between everyone involved in the production, processing, management, and control of food safety and quality. Furthermore, a smart monitoring system is required for better measurement and management of the current food production cycle.
Strengthening food safety with new system tools
With the increasing complexity of the global food supply chain, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions provide a valuable tool to collect and analyze intelligence in order to detect potential problems and avert recalls.
Technology like end-to-end Trace One Devex PLM manages all product specifications in a single integrated system, ensuring that all required specifications and up to date with current compliance requirements.
In order to ensure quality, Trace One Devex PLM pinpoints exactly where products are in the development process and uses multi-layered formulation for deep visibility into product quality at every stage. It also outputs quality data at each stage of product development, giving enterprises insights they need to make critical decisions.
Trace One Devex PLM helps tackle global food safety challenges
Ensuring the safety of food has become more challenging in an interconnected world.
To meet their responsibilities to global consumers, manufacturers need to avail themselves of the latest tools to champion and enhance food safety in the international marketplace. With Trace One Devex PLM, manufacturers can meet current compliance requirements, track ingredient sources, and ensure quality at every stage of product development in order to expand product lines into global markets while achieving higher product safety.