While there are many tools available to help food and beverage companies manage their supply chain, the integration of electronic systems in ensuring effective connectivity can be a challenge. During a Food Safety Tech conference, a panel of industry experts shared their perspectives on how to use tools to manage and communicate recalls, and the importance of focusing on a food safety management system. Melanie Neumann, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Acheson Group, cited recall communication programs such as Rapid Recall Exchange and Recall Info Link. “They’re great programs in that they The 2015 Food Safety Consortium Conference (November 17-20, 2015 in Schaumburg, IL) features topics on supply chain risk and vulnerabilities. Register now. communicate outbound, downstream to the recipients of recalled products. It gets [product] out of the hands of potential consumer purchasers and consumer consumption,” said Neumann. “Here’s what it doesn’t do: They have no way of knowing whether or not they’re communicating out all of the affected product. It still comes back to industry’s responsibility in effective supply chain management to know you’ve captured all of the affected recalled product that those systems are then used to communicate outbound.”
Known for its global brands such as Oreo, Ritz, Cadbury, Toblerone, Trident and Tang, Mondelēz International is a global snacks powerhouse, with products marketed in 165 countries.
The company, which was created in October 2012 with spin-off of Kraft Foods Group, earned net revenues of $35 billion in 2012, and is the No. 1 in biscuits, chocolate, candy and powdered beverages; and No. 2 in gum and coffee. Mondelēz also employs approximately 110,000 people and works with nearly 3000 raw material suppliers.
Against this background, the primary goal for the company is to provide Food that is Safe to Eat, described Peter Begg, Sr. Director, Global Quality Programs, Mondelēz International.
Talking about Global Supply Chain Best practices at the recent Global Food Safety Conference, Begg described that his company ensures that its consumers and customers can trust the products that they manufacture and provide by:
“Having a comprehensive Food Safety program that meets or exceeds regulatory requirements and ensures global consistency;
Benchmarking annually to ensure the robustness of our food safety program including 3rd party audits (GFSI);
Continuously evolving our global strategies on Food Safety, with goals to drive further progress; and
Leveraging Supply Chain initiatives to support the Food Safety program.”
At Mondelēz, food safety management occurs at multiple levels, said Begg: “The International Board of Directors Level reviews food safety management; the Executive Team level assesses company risk profile and management programs; food safety and quality senior management establishes food safety policy, control programs, and compliance mechanisms; business units implement company food safety policies and programs, and ensure regulatory compliance; and the Special Situations management team assesses and proactively manages issues, issues prevention, and communication of lessons learned.”
Begg stressed that “companies need to make food safety culture personal, so people don’t bypass it. Mondelēz has had 0 incidents, 0 defects and 0 losses – and this will not be possible without 100 percent employee involvement.”
He described an Integrated Quality Management Approach that focuses on systems across key factors in the supply chain: “Risk categories (covering chemical, microbiology and physical risks) are addressed along several steps (Design, Procure, Covert, Distribute, Trade and Consumer) using various quality risk prevention programs such as design safety analysis; HACCP; allergen management; supplier QA; material monitoring; continuous improvement; traceability, complaint management, process capability/ Six Sigma; warehouse controls and labeling.”
Begg described Mondelēz’ quality and food safety programs that help assess, manage, and mitigate risk:
Risk Assessment:
Supplier approval and management: determines suppliers risk profile and ability to meet MDLZ standards before use and on an ongoing basis;
Design Safety Analysis: new/changed product concepts are evaluated to design out potential physical hazards;
Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) – focused on prevention, identifies conversion risks, controls, and monitoring compliance; and
Third Party Validation – validation of key systems; Design, HACCP, Micro, Allergen, Supplier, Auditing.
Risk Management:
Auditing – risk based approach to assesses compliance to policy and execution of programs leading to corrective/ preventive actions;
Material Monitoring – incoming material testing program to verify the effectiveness of preventative programs;
Training – drives awareness of policies, programs, roles & responsibilities and enhances organizational competency;
Traceability – programs to manage and trace materials thru finished goods;
Spec Management – specification development and change management process for materials, processes, and finished goods; and
Contingency Planning for single/ sole source and regionally isolated ingredients.
Risk Mitigation:
Special Situations Management – defined company-wide process for proactive and effective management of issues minimizing potential impact to the business.
Mondelēz has made a strong commitment to the Global Food Safety Initiative. According to Begg, the company has asked its nearly 3000 raw material suppliers globally to get certified under a GFSI benchmarked standard by 2015. All internal manufacturing facilities will have a GFSI certification (FSSC 22000) by the end of 2015 as well (currently 80 percent of facilities are certified). The company is also promoting GFSI to its external partners including joint ventures and external manufacturers.
Adoption of cloud-based technologies for food safety and quality assurance: It’s going to happen. It has to happen. It should happen.
There’s been a lot of chat in the blogosphere recently about adoption of cloud-based technologies for food safety and quality assurance (FSQA). When it comes to uncertainty about the cloud, the Food and Beverage industry needs to – and I truly say this with no offense intended – get over it! It’s going to happen. It has to happen. It should happen.
FSQA compliance is only going to get more complex – with testing and audit trails required by law, non-regulatory standards and by customers. This means that all participants in a supply chain are going to have to be connected to get information collected, analyzed and reported in realtime.
It’s not practical, and probably not feasible – particularly in a global food supply chain – to connect participants using ERP-type solutions that are expensive, take a lot of time to deploy and many, many dollars to maintain.
Most emerging food safety and quality solutions are cloud-based for just that reason. They make it easy to connect suppliers, manufacturers and services/retail customers – without expensive hardware installations – and with affordable, fast to deploy and easy-to-use solutions that have actual hard-dollar return on investment.
So what’s the fuss?
Most concerns seem to be centered around security, so let’s consider some industries which represent the most prominent users of cloud solutions today. Two of the largest are banks, who heavily promote online banking including international cloud banking, and human resources departments of large companies, who rely on cloud-based employee portals for open enrollment, paystub viewing and more. We are talking about some of the most sensitive information out there: individuals’ personal information, social security numbers, salaries, bank accounts, etc. And cloud adoption is growing rapidly in other industries too – like insurance, healthcare and more.
Early cloud adopters in the F&B industry know what industries like banking and human resources know:
There’s as much security in cloud-based solutions as there are in non-cloud technologies – and cloud security is highly configurable to fit the specific needs of individual users. If you want, for example, downstream customers to see only COAs and not see failed FSQA tests – then that’s how your vendor will configure your solution. If you want full transparency you can have that too. And for information that you don’t want anyone to see – like recipes – that is also a part of the security.
Cloud solution vendors generally exceed government and customer security requirements because they go the extra mile to ensure customer confidence and confidentiality.
And as much as everyone thinks participants in a supply chain will balk about using a cloud system to send/receive FSQA information – the reality is that it makes it easier for everyone to work together – speeding throughput and preventing non-compliant products from coming in or going out.
So I encourage you to talk to your vendors. Learn more about their cloud security. And, to paraphrase Mr. Jagger, Hey you – get on to my cloud!
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