How to Keep Up with FDA Lot Traceability Regulations

In March of this past year, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) released a report that stated the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had recently launched 2 test pilots to improve product tracing. These pilots were aimed to help better regulate foodborne illness and quarantine outbreaks faster.

FDA testing has shown that improved product tracing has the potential to reduce up to 55 percent of total foodborne illnesses, as well as the reduction of economic impact of outbreaks by as much as $14 million dollars per incident. As a result, new food regulation programs for distributors are expected to be more stringent in coming years. Additional recordkeeping for “high-risk foods,” for example, is a likely possibility.

As it stands, the FDA mandates that almost every food product – especially meat, seafood, dairy, and eggs –has to have a marked lot number and GS1 label on the item before shipping. This number details where the item has been. It also gives the FDA batch information and a means to trace the product back to the warehouse it was distributed from. The FDA is looking for better methods, and is encouraging companies to turn to technology to implement more efficient tracking solutions.

Food distributors are struggling to keep pace with ever-changing regulations, but what many don’t realize is that recall issues stem from the use of multiple systems and software, as well as manual management processes prior to the product ever entering the distribution channel. Too many systems and procedures that lack interoperability is a recipe for disaster, especially when valuable time is wasted tracking a potentially contaminated shipment.

With recent food recalls, the FDA is getting ready to crack down on product traceability. Many food distributors are pushing to upgrade their lot traceability software to prepare for the rise in regulations and government monitoring, though the strain may be felt most by SMBs who do not share the robust budgets of enterprise-grade competitors.

There is an answer for SMBs, however. SR²Software specializes in providing affordable solutions for SMB food distributors that rival competing software that is almost 10 times the price. Discover how to keep up with government lot traceability regulations in a relatively affordable way and talk to one of our SR²Software experts today at 866.245.6216!

4 Things QuickBooks Doesn’t Do that SMB Food Distributors Need

There is no question that QuickBooks is a great accounting software for small to medium food distribution businesses, but what do you do when your company’s needs start to pull a little at the seams, when your operations start to become more robust? The answer may not be scrapping QuickBooks and starting all over again with a whole new solution, but instead bringing in complimentary software to draw more functionality from your systems.

When searching through seas of software, it’s important to be wary of cookie cutter solutions that pledge the world by saying they can fit into a variety of industries when, in reality, they leave little to be desired. For those hunting down software that will improve operations in the food distribution industry while simultaneously filling some of the holes that QuickBooks can leave behind, it is important to find a multi-faceted solution that offers the following:

Automatic Truck Routing – Avoid the manual, time-consuming processes that come with old-school methods of logistics. Mapping out routes and creating time-tables after manually putting orders into sequences can be a task of the past.  With automatic truck routing integrated into IT systems, organizations can save time, reduce errors, and improve the efficiency of their shipping and distribution.

Product Tracking – This technology is monumental for food manufacturers. Being able to track shipments that have potential contaminants quickly and efficiently has become a necessity. With the latest line of produce fiascos, the US Food and Drug Association (FDA) have made a considerable number of new policies to ensure that food distributors have this ability.

Pick Lists – With more organized pick lists that don’t require multiple reports, companies can increase the efficiency of warehouse workers, avoid duplicate item pulls, and decrease the number of times workers have to flounce in and out of freezer and refrigerator zones. Enhanced integration also allows mangers to see inventory quantities, out of stock information, order history guides, and more.

Catch Weights – Being able to input the exact weight of food products bought from various locations has a couple major benefits for food distributors. First, there is an added layer of traceability. Very few meat orders measure the same, after all. Second, when catch-weights are stored, the prices of items can be better tracked. After all, seafood and livestock prices fluctuate daily. Now, workers no longer have to manually change amounts to keep up.

Overall, organizations need reliable software that not only integrates with existing solutions, like QuickBooks, but also meets the needs of the food distribution industry. SR²Food from SR²Software is a competitive solution that offers traceability and enhanced functionality to improve the efficiency of your workers and overall operations. Explore what SR²Food can offer your business. Contact one of our SR²Software experts today at 866.245.6216!