The traceability of meat products makes it possible to reconstruct their history, it is a health guarantee that provides added value. The recording of the origin and of all the handling, conservation, processing and transport processes that a food has undergone until it reaches the consumer makes it possible to identify it effectively and unequivocally wherever and whenever necessary.
The three phases of traceability
Depending on whether it affects the operations carried out in the meat company itself or those carried out before and after, traceability is divided into:
- Backwardtraceability: Dependent on information provided by suppliers. It refers to the origin of the animals and raw materials that enter the company. It includes the suppliers, animal identifications, sanitary controls, treatments and incidences; as well as the batch of other raw materials used.
- Internal traceability: It affects all the processes carried out within the company, including storage, conservation and transport periods.
- Forward traceability: Focused on what happens after processing is complete, it consists of keeping a record of what has been dispatched, when, under what conditions and to which customer.
How is the traceability of a meat product carried out?
The basic purpose of traceability is food safety. However, its implementation can bring much more to the meat industries. Optimizing traceability management ensures the correct maintenance of organoleptic characteristics, provides consumer confidence and can add value to a product with special characteristics, such as designation of origin or organic livestock. A set of factors that generate a competitive advantage for the product offered.
The monitoring of the meat processing chain involves:
- Identification of raw materials and production batches by assigning specific codes.
- Integrated control, through a traceability tree that includes data provided by suppliers, internal processes and shipping data.
- The generation of technical data sheets and informative labelling of each product.
- Optimized determination of recommended consumption times.
- The management of food alerts.
In order to avoid losses, it is a great advantage to control sales and storage by means of an integrated system which, in combination with the above information, makes it possible to modify production rates.
ERP solutions for traceability of meat products
In the event of a problem at any point in the supply or processing chain, corrective action and even product recalls are easier to manage if all data is correctly recorded through an ERP software.
ERP software.
Specialist in solutions adapted for agri-food companies, Cedesa offers you solutions for an integrated management. Our
traceability software
software facilitates the automation of processes and optimises the management of the numerous and diverse data required for traceability assurance.
