Software company TraceAll and food process control
business Qmach have joined forces to provide an online system for
tracing food ingredients through the global supply and production
chain.
The move is aimed at helping food companies comply with new
safety requirements that require them to trace ingredients from
source right up to the supermarket checkout so that food safety
problems can be pinpointed and products recalled if necessary.
Food retailers such as Wal-Mart are already setting traceability
standards for suppliers of fresh products.
The online food tracing system is built on TraceAll’s web-based
technology, which gives users access to full product information
from anywhere in the world in real time.
The web-based automated product is designed to replace
time-consuming paper-based systems and allow food firms to identify
and quantify any problems quickly and accurately.
Electronic tracking and tracing of ingredients is also becoming
important in the pharmaceutical industry, as part of measures to
tackle counterfeit medicines.
Last month the US Food and Drug Administration said it would
enforce tracing regulations, urging pharmaceutical firms to adopt
radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to document drug
products’ passage through the supply chain.
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