The impact of software and traceability on food safety
Food safety is crucial for public health. To guarantee that food safety, a conclusive system for 'traceability' for food companies is an absolute must. However, keeping all info on processed products manually is both time-consuming and error-prone. Investing in software that automates traceability is therefore a better option.
Software to ensure food safety
Consumers trust that the food they buy is safe to eat. An outbreak of a food-related illness can therefore have serious consequences for consumers, but certainly also for the reputation of the food producer. To prevent this, many food companies have invested in traceability technologies and software in recent years. Indeed, these play an undeniable role in ensuring food safety.
What is traceability?
Traceability is the ability to track and trace products at all stages: from production through processing to distribution. This is interesting for the food producer, but also for the end user. Indeed, the identification and registration of incoming, processed and outgoing products provides them with transparency about their origin. And this transparency is a priority in terms of quality and safety within the food industry.
How does traceability work in the food industry?
In the food industry, traceability starts when products enter the food company: traceability "in". These products must be identified and registered so that they can always be traced back to the supplier.

Traceability must then also be maintained within the food company: by recording at the production stage which incoming products are incorporated into which outgoing finished products.
Finally, finished products are also recorded when they leave for their new destination: traceability "out".
All these registrations serve the same purpose: to ensure that food can be recalled or blocked in a fast and efficient way if necessary.
The contribution of software to traceability
Keeping track of all this information manually is both time-consuming and error-prone. This is where software developers respond with solutions that allow food companies to automate traceability. This software not only simplifies recordings throughout the process flow. It also enables management of the registered data and makes them easily retrievable.
Thanks to this software, the entire traceability tree of a particular batch or product can be quickly reconstructed: from the origin over the processing location to the destination. Does a problem arise somewhere? Then the food company can act quickly. On the one hand, by blocking in-house products for further production or dispatch. On the other hand, the communication tools integrated in the software can automatically generate recall notifications.
Benefits of software and traceability for food safety
The benefits of software and traceability summarised:
- Quick action through readily available traceability data in the event of a recall
- Contaminated products can be quickly detected and blocked
- Ability to block affected stocks from production
- Fast and efficient recall management towards customers and supplier
- Credibility towards customers in case of questions on product origin
- Compliance with existing legislation
