Where My Food Comes From
In this era of health-consciousness, people are keen to know where their food comes from. Here is an increased demand for fresh, healthy, and safe food. The food we eat provides us with energy and essential nutrients needed to maintain our immune systems, but food adulterants, which might have been added to the food for technical and economic benefits. It may adversely reduce the value of nutrients in food, leading to food contamination and ultimately rendering the food not fit for consumption.
Types of food adulterations
- Intentional Food Adulterations-
Added to increase the weight to drive up profits.
- Incidental Food Adulterations-
Rises due to negligent food handling.
- Metallic Food Adulterations-
Materials like lead and mercury are added.
- Packaging Hazards-
Food components are mixed with chemicals produced from the packaging materials.
Risks of food adulterations
- Stomach problems
- Liver or kidney failure
- Severe allergic reactions
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Deficiency of essential nutrients in our body
Since 1998 there has been a steady rise in documented food allergy diagnoses, particularly in children with multiple intolerances and allergies. Currently, 85 million Americans avoid buying the top nine proteins due to life-threatening food allergies and intolerances. Because so many people suffer from food allergies, it’s essential to spread awareness of typical food allergy triggers. Everyone needs to know how to read and interpret an ingredient label to avoid potential allergens to keep themselves and others safe.
We need a system that allows businesses to trace any product sold for human or animal consumption across all stages of creation, production, transformation, and shipping. The first step in applying traceability in the food supply chain is to adopt technology that allows for digital management of the supply chain, which creates an ecosystem that provides visibility and easy business compliance. Though Product Traceability was born in 2006, we still see shortcomings in implementation and a lack of interoperability between the supply-chain partners nearly two decades later. These shortcomings lead to several challenges, with food contamination and food wastage topping the list.
During an outbreak of foodborne illnesses, it’s critical to rapidly identify the origin of the contamination within the supply chain to help uncover the root cause. It will allow for a food recall process to begin. Having an ingredient-level traceable system in place empowers food recall. We need a system that can track all the shipments in real-time, implement a product recall in case of ingredient expiry, and help the consumer have end-to-end information on the consumption of a product.
We understand the enterprise supply chain’s challenges in dealing with multinational and multi-system operations. There are massive amounts of paperwork and multiple procedural hassles, and freight processes today are complex, inefficient, and expensive. In the food supply chain, every participant faces complex challenges that could include-
- A lack of transparency of data and information
- An inability to hold stakeholders accountable
- Managing documentation
- Sustainable sourcing
- Working with regulatory authorities to speed up the certification process
How do we overcome the food supply chain challenges?
For this, we need a system that can:
Keep Records systematically:
The system can keep records on product or business information (Key Data Elements) at all points of exchange of the food with (Critical Tracking Events) performed automatically on the system.
Help to identify the root cause:
When the food is in transit and an issue arises, the Track and Trace functionality helps identify the root cause using its backward traceability system and allows business operators to launch a preemptive withdrawal of the affected food products.
Speed up the product recall Process:
Product recall is an essential process as it is a crucial protection for consumer health. Track and Trace functionality helps reduce the risk of food waste and food theft in the supply chain. It also enables business operators to recover contaminated food products quickly and mitigates further risk. It protects the brands’ reputation and secures consumer trust.
Advanced accountability system:
The end goal of the Track and Trace is to have an accurate and real-time visualization of the food. Traceability is the key that gives the consumer real-time supply chain information about where their food comes from.
