Food supplements can learn from drug traceability tactics
The company said its traceability services that include individual package bar coding software, as the EU is now demanding of the drug industry, could help prevent contamination problems like those that have arisen in Denmark, the UK and other European countries this year.
“The new drug laws mean pallet-level traceability is no longer enough and so package traceability is becoming a must,” said Zetes’ Pascal Durdu. “This technology may also be able to deliver positive balance sheet results for the food supplements industry.?”
He said the technology also had the potential to deliver manufacturing process information like temperature at different stages in the supply chain all the way from growing fields or plant to retail shelves.
Such systems can track products so comprehensively that the great unknowns in the entire supply chain can be the manner they are consumed once purchased.
While contamination problems are not a high-profile problem in the EU, such systems had the potential to reduce and potential costs involved in, “investigation and recall”, according to Durdu.
“Many organisations have the systems in place to track products through elements of the supply chain, but lack a joined up approach and operate in silos without sharing the information gathered,” the company added.
“Slowly this is changing, as producers and retailers work together to identify simple yet highly effective solutions to capturing and sharing product information. And this is occurring within companies of all sizes.”
Zetes has a turnover of about $200m and sells its services to other industries such as the food industry, the luxury goods industry and ID card manufacturers.
