The EU's Food Information Regulation, adopted in September 2011, replaces Food Labelling Regulation, and has been designed to simplify labelling by streamlining existing legislation into a single EU regulation. While it is good news for the consumer in the long term, the cost to industry is high: £3,260 for every new label according to Campden BRI.
Yet even this is not the full story. The scope of the new regulations includes measures to create a tighter link between date codes and food safety as well as other dynamic information to improve traceability. As the requirements come into full effect, access to the right coding and marking equipment as well as networking software to manage production lines efficiently will only become more important.
Yet as recently as 2009, an FDA study of 40 branded products found that only four could be traced back to both time and place of manufacture. Partial traceability was present in 14 brands while either time or place of manufacture could not be established in 22 brands. That the move to improve traceability is gathering momentum, in the wake of more recent high profile criminal activity within the food supply chain particularly, is hardly surprising.
For the majority of manufacturers however it is possible to implement cost effective brand protection and product traceability solutions that use existing data management systems, and carry minimal costs.
For those manufacturers now examining exactly what is required to implement FIR and improve traceability there are four primary considerations: technology, compatibility, timing and sustainability.
The technology required for implementing an effective brand protection and traceability solution includes appropriate coding & marking system machines that print the required information and provide flexibility to frustrate theft and counterfeiting. These might include: ink or laser-printed codes applied directly on the product; coding with light shifting inks; conventional variable printing, 1D and 2D barcodes and nano-printing on labels; labels with holograms, RIFD tags as well as other customised chemistries and technologies.
Intelligent marking and coding equipment should be considered, including a variety of systems that can be networked and which print directly on the product, packaging or labels. They provide the right level of automated marking and coding at each stage, along with bidirectional communications to accept variable and dynamic labelling and coding template information and confirm that all product units and packages have been appropriately marked or coded.
In the event of a brand compromise, the network makes it possible to immediately trace the genealogy of pallets, packages, and product units back to their source and to detect stolen, inappropriately diverted or counterfeited goods.
Most manufacturers already have local and wide area networks, an assortment of digital marking and coding equipment and an ERP system but they are typically islands of automation.
With integrated systems in place, it is possible to devise an effective brand protection and product traceability solution while incurring only moderate incremental costs for additional marking and coding equipment, materials and the critical communications and data management software.
This integration of coding devices, packaging equipment, packaging materials and networked devices using software that can scale with the operation makes it possible to monitor the flow of goods through the distribution channel in real-time or trace goods back to their source in the event of a compromise.
Marking and coding should occur at the earliest opportunity as the products move through the various stages of the manufacturing and packaging process.
Best before dates can go on a bottle just before it is filled, while lot coding with dynamic or serialised information should happen during the packaging process. Codes must be verified as correct and legible, or the line stopped directly after the coding process.
Product cases can be side-coded with dynamic and variable data as soon as they are filled. As cases are added to pallets, the multiple levels of genealogy information are gathered and stored within a traceability database.
This discipline gives the manufacturer positive control of brand protection information throughout the manufacturing and packaging process up to the point where the goods are shrink-wrapped on the pallet.
Achieving this may involve relocating or purchasing additional equipment, software and consultancy services yet the level of brand protection this product traceability provides is worth the relatively modest expense.
Manufacturers should consider whether marking and coding systems will continue to be compatible with evolving network and ERP system technologies for the longer term.? Does the system adhere to established best practices and is it capable of evolving to meet yet-to-be established regulatory requirements?
Coding and marking specialists like Markem-Imaje have a wealth of experience which can help businesses to understand these four considerations fully and implement a robust brand protection and product traceability strategy. This will allow manufacturers, processors and brands to respond effectively to rapidly emerging product redistribution opportunities and brand compromise situations.
Such a system will be adequate to meet current needs and importantly it will be scalable to meet future changes in legislation which may require additional information to be included within the coding process.
