The food industry is undergoing massive changes. A growing amount of food dollars are looking to brands that can make β and validate β claims of local, organic, sustainable and a host of other value-added food attributes. In this environment, companies operating in the food and beverage industry need to have deep insight into their supply chains to compete. Digital, end-to-end serialized traceability originally developed and deployed across the global pharmaceutical industry to fight fraud and counterfeiting, provides an essential tool in winning the food game in the new food economy.
End-to-end serialization helps to ensure that companies are protected today, and ready to adapt to the challenges of tomorrow. Serialization is the process of creating a unique identifier or code for every item sold. Some estimate that serialization can add four orders of magnitude to supply chain visibility in a single step.
Well, once products are serialized a batch is no longer just thousands of undifferentiated packs, but single, traceable items that have quality metrics associated with their data. Data about the product starting with harvest through its journey to consumer can be tracked at every stage of the supply chain. Serious leaders in the food and beverage industry understand that item-level traceability is the future and are beginning to take advantage of what it has to offer.
Importantly, the costs for implementing serialization solutions are coming down at the same time the benefits are becoming indispensable. Counterfeiting in high-value products like specialty foods and spirits costs brand value. By labeling products with a unique code, consumers can validate the authenticity of products. Serialization helps to ensure that returned products are authentic, allowing for retailers or distributors to put items back on the shelf with confidence. No matter the rigor of food safety protocols, product recalls due to contamination or adulteration are still possible.
However, by serializing each product, the size and scope of any recall can be reduced. Each item has a unique identifier that is put into a case which has its own unique identifier. When these cases are loaded onto a pallet, the pallet receives another unique number. By creating and following these parent-child relationships through aggregation and then de-aggregation and distribution, targeted, surgical recalls become possible, ensuring that only impacted product is pulled, while allowing for a safe product to stay on the shelf.
