Image-based technology: A reputation of trust

CHINA’s food and beverage industry is once again the focus of attention – regulators have conducted investigations on Yum! Brands, the owner of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. Based on a report by The Economist earlier this year, local suppliers had been found to be supplying the company with chickens that contained excessive amounts of antibiotics.

Whilst the Yum was not fined by the regulatory authorities, the negative publicity from the incident has resulted in a backlash from mainstream and online media. In January, the company’s China business saw a 41% drop for KFC and a 15% contraction for Pizza Hut Casual Dining, according to Reuters.

In a separate incident, the International Herald Tribune reported in March, that about 6,000 dead pigs were found floating in Huangpu River in Shanghai. One speculative view is that police have recently been investigating the sale of pigs that had died from disease but were still illegally entering the consumer food supply chain. This could have sparked off the dumping of the pigs into the river.

Facilitating investigations

These incidents exemplify the importance of supply chain security. In the event that a problem is discovered in a food product, having a robust traceability system can help investigators to determine the source of contamination. It also allows them to determine when and where – on the manufacturing line, supplier network, or in the distribution channels – the problem had occurred.

Image-based technology, in this respect, assists to uncover the source of the problem. Such system uses readers to capture information from 1-D barcodes or 2-D codes that are printed on the product during production. Information stored on codes would typically include batch codes, and product manufacturing and expiry dates.

If a problem were deliberately or accidentally introduced by an employee during production, investigators could identify the affected batches and the production shift. This makes it is possible to narrow down the list of suspects to those who were on duty during that particular shift.

In certain situations, a discovered safety violation may necessitate an immediate product recall. Depending on the quantity of product affected and the size of the distribution network, this could become a costly and labour intensive logistics operation. A traceability system that is embedded in the distribution system, however, could help to streamline the process.

By determining the batches that have problems, the manufacturer can track products downstream to retail or even consumer levels. This of course also means that information pertaining to the products must have been captured by the system, each time they changed hands at various levels of the distribution network. Such tracking precision can help save time, money and effort, as a total recall of all products may then be avoided.

Counterfeit or substandard products, too, could be prevented from entering the supply chain by having an effective traceability system in place. The dead pigs scandal in China, for instance, might be an indication that meat unfit for human consumption had been finding its way into legitimate distribution channels.

Recognising the weaknesses in today’s food supply chains, an initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is looking to improve the safety of beef sold in the US. According to Shelf Life Advice, this is to be achieved by improving traceability, since current tracking methods are inadequate. This farm-to-fork programme aims to explore better ways of tracing products and disease outbreaks. The application that is being developed, should allow quick access to information pertainiAir Zoom Pegasus 33