When it comes to food safety, it is no longer sufficient to simply rely on common sense and ‘gut feeling’. Today’s farmers and food and drink manufacturers must meet the requirements of strict regulations and ensure that their food safety management systems are highly functional, reliable and consistent.
In recent years, there has been a shift towards the use of automation, technology and software as a means of monitoring and controlling food safety. This is evident in all areas of agriculture, food processing and manufacturing – from farm to fork.
Food safety compliance software and sensor instrumentation to collect valuable data has resulted in complete transparency and accountability across the supply chain.
The food sector continues to face major hurdles, such as stringent hygiene and safety standards, product waste prevention and HACCP management. Inaccurate manual checks are therefore being replaced with increasingly cost-effective automated monitoring systems which use IoT (Internet of Things) sensors to help increase efficiency, reduce costs and ensure food hygiene standards are persistently sustained.
Using intelligent wireless sensor technology, these advanced systems monitor processes to save time and drive profitability, whilst delivering maximum protection for food safety standards and quality.
Transparency across the supply chain
According to a recent report by Grand View Research, Inc, Quality Management Software (QMS) is used to effectively manage and control quality and safety concerns regarding performance, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness of the organisation.
The latest technology, machines, apps and cloud-based QMS and food safety software solutions offer numerous functionalities including:
- Real-time monitoring
- The handling of non-conformance
- Recording and analysing trends to perform predictive analysis for potential hazards
- The integration of data to perform evidence-based risk analysis
- Calibration
- Ensuring compliance, and improving efficiency, quality, safety and performance
- A centralised system that ensures connection to ERP and CRM systems and secure sharing of information
- Transparency, traceability, scalability and accessibility throughout the supply chain
Machines and applications collect data through sensors which can then be used to monitor performance and manage operations from a single interface. This reduces errors and waste to achieve optimum revenue.
Prevention-based control
Globalisation and the necessity to comply with regulatory compliance – such as the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) – has resulted in more and more farmers and food and drink manufacturers investing in technology, automated systems and advanced software solutions to tackle the increased pressures of food safety regulations and directives.
It is therefore imperative that all food and drink manufacturers improve performance and demonstrate complete transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain by using advanced technology and automation for prevention-based control.