GTP:Traceability friendly production

From TraceFood

Guide to traceability friendly production

A traceability oriented implementation process includes both re-engineering of data recording, material flow and production processes. There are two main ways of dealing with traceability:

1. You can document a poor or complicated material flow.

or

2. You can simplify your material flow based on traceability friendly criteria, and document this.

Design of optimal cost effective production processes and purchase policy has through many years been a major part of the improvement process in the food industry. Due to this, modern food factories are streamlined with specialized production of narrow products (i.e. cutlets, fillets, etc). Given low risk, it is not necessarily very profitable to implement a traceability friendly production regime. However, if there is a substantial risk for contamination of food stuffs, it is possible to implement procedures for handling of input factors and production which simplifies traceability. Such a traceability friendly practice may help to isolate contaminated items and recall these efficiently, and hence reduce direct cost. The various food scares show that there are serious risk present, both for hazards and subsequent loss of money and reputation.

When considering re-engineering of existing production practice in a more traceability oriented manner, the following corrective actions should be considered:

• Reduction of the size of input factors (raw materials and ingredients). This is especially important for long lasting ingredients like; salt, spices, flour, etc. If contamination is first identified after lengthy use of such input factors, this may have strong negative effects on products made over a long.
• Use of small(er) production batches. In principle, you are free to define the size of your production batch. In a food scare case, such a practice can lead to withdrawal of enormous amounts of products. Contrary, if splitting the production into small batches (i.e. one day’s production), just limited numbers of would be affected.
• Minimum mixing of raw materials with different origin. A contamination is often not detected before a Trade Unit is out in the shops. If probability for cause of contamination can be placed on raw materials, it can be hard to tell which raw material that is the source. If fractions/parts of these raw materials also have been applied in other productions, it is likely that products made of “clean” raw materials would be recalled. Due to this, one should avoid mixing of raw materials with different origin in a production batch.

Decisions taken when dealing with the issue of traceability friendly production should be based on risk analysis and cost/benefit calculations.