< Previous20 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net LOGISTICS Things (IoT), cloud, and automation, and real time data is facilitating the close monitoring of the movement of goods. Paired with predictive analytics, end to end visibility is enabled, and companies can forecast delays and disruptions. This additionally helps in adjusting to changes in the market and demand fluctuations. This enhanced visibility of supply chains will only become more important as companies react to modern expectations and regulations. Consumers want to know where their food comes from, how animals have been treated and ingredients have been grown, whether goods are sustainably sourced. Though some companies in the industry are restricted by legacy software and siloed operations, unable to be agile (bolstering supply chain problems across the world), many manufacturers and retailers have already set sights on gaining access to detailed ledgers that track and trace materials from farm to fork, allowing for possible problems in the supply chain to be identified, better predictions, increased food safety and easier recalls, and the potential for food fraud to be mitigated. Some companies are using continuous communication logs, with all players in the supply chain connected and exchanging data, whether that relates to cargo location, humidity and temperature readings, or inspection checkpoints. Moreover, data-driven intelligence can be leveraged in real time, to strengthen visibility, transparency and accountability across the food supply chain. The use of sustainable vehicles will quickly become more important with an increase in HGV movements predicted and the government’s recent announcement that new, non-zero tailpipe emission HGVs over 26 tonnes will be phased out in 2040, with those under 26 tonnes to be phased out in 2035. EVs have been a central talking point when it comes to bolstering the environmental credentials of logistics and transport, and innovation as well as falling battery costs are © stock.adobe.com/Corona BorealisFood & Drink International 21 www.fdiforum.net LOGISTICS boosting opportunities for electric HGVs, while there are plans for an electric motorway with cables to power electric lorries through Lincolnshire, but it is not the only avenue for carbon reduction, with trucks fuelled by compressed natural gas for instance another solution. Additionally, operators are changing business practices to improve the efficiency of their fleet operations and conducting training to encourage driver behaviours that lower fuel consumption and emissions. There is more to be done however across all transport modes and the entire supply chain. Advances in digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are offering further methods of making logistics more efficient and sustainable. They allow mistakes to be eliminated and complete visibility of a journey to be provided. Routes and transit methods can be assessed to improve efficiency and carbon emissions, while the Internet of Things (IoT) and its sensors can be used to monitor and collect data on speed, tyre pressure, driver behaviour, et al., which all impact fuel consumption and emissions. All this tech together creates chances for enhanced planning and control, opens up optimisation potential, and is key to setting emission targets by allowing accurate current emissions to be calculated. Real time transport visibility platforms are already becoming standard in the industry and many of these can also be utilised to collect data for sustainability calculations. Opportunities from digitalisation apply throughout a journey, including truck dispatch at a facility - with digitalised processes and intelligent time slot management, truck congestion and waiting times can be reduced and significant CO2 savings made as a result. There are many challenges ahead for logistics and transport, but with innovation and the right government support the industry will be able to meet skyrocketing demand, talent shortages, and sustainability targets. Whether enough support can be provided however is yet to be seen. © stock.adobe.com/littlewolf198922 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net LABELLING, CODING AND TRACEABILITY L abelling as an information conduit has developed over many years, along with its related technology, and evolving ideas of consumer safety and satisfaction. Use-by dates, Ingredients and nutritional details are still essential for awareness of health, allergy risks and dietary restrictions, helping people make informed choices. But knowing the contents or origin of a product is no longer considered enough to verify its quality, and here’s where coding and traceability matter. Traceability allows the tracking of a product from the earliest stages of selecting raw ingredients, right the way through to where the production chain ends on store shelves, and even in storage at home. Before any food that’s ready-made or in production can move onto the next step in its journey, intelligent and carefully coded labelling assures that every process has been undertaken safely, and with the utmost care for health and hygiene. This is an essential system when preventing, controlling or removing risk from the food supply chain. It’s a mark of proper procedure for every aspect of making and distributing a product, creating accountability and upholding responsibility for each operative that handles it for any reason. If a food is proved to be unsafe once it’s left manufacture, it’s a clear sign that something has gone wrong, sometimes severely. In these urgent situations, the traceability of a flawed product acts as a guide towards the problem’s source. But more important for immediate safety, it allows personnel to accurately locate and withdraw every potentially affected batch. Label coding assigns a unique identifier, such as a batch or lot number, to each production run of a food product. Each batch or lot can then be traced back to specific production records, including information about when and where it was produced, which ingredients were used, and 24 Á Ensuring quality and safety In an era where consumer safety and trust are paramount, the significance of traceable labels and coding in the food industry cannot be overstated. These digital breadcrumbs safeguard reputation, protect public health, and streamline operations. Food & Drink International 23 www.fdiforum.net LABELLING, CODING AND TRACEABILITY © stock.adobe.com/_KUBE_24 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net LABELLING, CODING AND TRACEABILITY quality control measures. In the event of a product recall due to safety concerns or quality issues, coding is what facilitates the targeted recall of affected batches. By referencing their codes, manufacturers and distributors can quickly see which products need to be removed from the market, minimising the impact on consumers and public health. It can also be used to identify ingredients within a product, or processes which have gone into raw materials; that level of specificity is essential for investigating exactly where a product flaw arose from. In meat, for instance, public health relies on safe treatment of animals and animal products from end to end. If a meat, fish or poultry product causes an outbreak of food-borne illness, contaminated animal feed may have caused disease or other harmful bacterial growth in the blood or muscle. In another case however, there may have been improper storage leading to degradation, insufficient cooking that failed to eliminate illness causing bacteria, or any number of other isolated or combined failures. Whether in an emergency or amidst the regular chain of events that brings food to consumers, coding enables quick identification by sight or scanning at any moment necessary. The unmistakable identifier for each item is easily visible, allowing data to be collected and stored relating to its entire journey with minimal delays in such a high-demand sector. Rapid tracking enabled by coding is what allows machine or human operatives to see immediately where a product has been, and if it’s certified for safety. If recall is needed however, this same information can be brought up with the least possible drain on highly valuable time, showing the origin of any gaps or failures so they can be isolated at their source. No corner can be cut when it comes to food safety accreditation, as a sequence of precise requirements for businesses looking to sell their products through retail or online channels. Complete visibility and traceability are demanded by law for any food and drink aligned organisation, whether they’re large, middling or small scale. Applying fully coded and traceable labels for multiple production stages may seem like an undertaking for the scrappy underdogs in the food industry, but it’s an effort and investment worth making for the sake of reputation, safety and money saving in the long- term. For consumers, food traceability and date information instill trust in a brand, which will be damaged if a © stock.adobe.com/ramoncin1978 Better labels with LX3000e LX3000e Color Label Printer is the latest addition to the well-known LX- Series of desktop full-colour label printers and features large, individual ink tanks and a reusable thermal inkjet printhead. Each separate CMY tank holds 60 ml of ink. Pre-primed, user-replaceable printheads have another 42 ml of ink, for a total of 222 ml ‘out of the box’ ink. Both dye and pigment models are available. The ‘Big Ink’ system on LX3000e uses latest technology dye and pigment inks optimised for brightness, durability and optical density. The latter is particularly high for LX3000e’s process black, resulting in a really deep, dark black. LX3000e is ideal for users that need to print up to 10,000 labels per day. Other users will find the very low operating costs to be just as advantageous. The rugged, powder-coated steel cover and all-steel frame helps to protect the printer in most office, warehouse and factory environments. “The LX3000e is a desktop label printer that expands perfectly our portfolio of printing solutions,” says Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of DTM Print, an international solution provider for specialty printing systems with over three decades of industry expertise. “It combines the latest in ink technology, excellent print quality and exceptional low cost per label.” DTM Print offers great additional benefits with all its products such as free label design software, three years warranty, support and service through local partners and a large variety of approved label substrates under the brand ‘Genuine DTM Label Stock’. For more information and product videos visit https://dtm-print.eu. Food & Drink International 25 www.fdiforum.net LABELLING, CODING AND TRACEABILITY health issue occurs, a blemish that might prove irreparable. Packaging labels with a wealth of detail display trustworthiness that can’t be faked for informed and ever more discerning customers. Implementing properly coded and traceable labels can take various forms and be applied at any stage. Primary stages involve labels affixed directly to the food, while secondary stages are where boxes and other outer packaging are given exact copies of all necessary origin, ingredient, health and contact details. The final phase of labelling is the tertiary stage, which comes after products are palletised and prepared for shipping, ensuring any handlers at this stage have the information they need. Some of these methods can involve manual writing, while others may rely on printed labels or stickers for clarity and machine scanning. But regardless of your business size, semi-automation can be an ideal compromise for security and budgeting. Industry technologies such as inkjet or laser printing, or print-and-apply labelling, reduces operational and consumable expenses along with labour requirements. Opposed to the errors and flaws that can often occur when relying on manual efforts, the added machine accuracy of semi-automation decreases the likelihood of human error in an area where accuracy is a legal requirement. The consequences of labelling and coding errors can be substantial, impacting not only a company’s reputation but also its finances. If poorly coded packaging reaches a retailer, it can cost even a small business in batch losses, damage to reputation, legal consequences or regulatory penalties. In the interests of keeping people safe and protecting your business interests, on top of simply averting the waste of resources, proper labelling with all necessary information is invaluable. In most cases, ensuring safety and traceability will provide enough security that your business can consider it a good habit. But as in any industry where unfortunate accidents can cause emergencies, it’s essential to be prepared, and rewarding to feel sure that your products are always being handled with the respect they deserve. Looking for assistance labelling your product? HERMA are committed to meeting your requirements With over 110 years’ experience of manufacturing labellers and labelling machines HERMA have a wealth of knowledge in providing both local and international customers with labelling solutions. Visit HERMA to see how they can help with your labelling requirements. Labelling Systems © stock.adobe.com/romaset26 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net CONTROL AND AUTOMATION © stock.adobe.com/YouraPechkin Under pressure Food & Drink International 27 www.fdiforum.net CONTROL AND AUTOMATION F ood safety is not only paramount for any business that cares for its customer base, but a legal requirement with the future of your business on the line. Control measures are put in place to prevent the contamination of food products by harmful contaminants, such as bacteria and foodborne illnesses, pesticides, or debris including glass and metal. But even without these potential interlopers, ensuring food is delicious and safe involves a complex web of factors. Maintaining consistent quality, including in flavour, texture and aesthetic appearance, hangs on compliance with control regulations. They’re also essential for product integrity including shelf life and preventing spoilage, which connects from there with avoiding waste and making the most of all your resources. There’s even a two-way flow to contend with here, as control processes can optimise the use of resources such as energy, water and raw materials, making food production more efficient and sustainable. And, of course, each of these facets ultimately affect your reputation and how well you build trust with consumers. Trying to manage every control measure at once is enough to make your head spin. But in this article, we’ll go through each available control method, and how it can be automated for less stress while providing your tastiest products to current and future loyal customers. Control and monitoring have four potential routes which all have flexible applications to production; these are in- line, on-line, at-line, and off-line. To push past the jargon for in-line control first of all, this involves real-time measurements and adjustments made during the actual production process. In-line monitoring is commonly used for tasks like checking ingredient proportions, temperature control, and quality control during food processing. For example, sensors can monitor the thickness of dough in a bakery production line, ensuring the final product has the desired appearance 28 Á Process control and monitoring, in any manufacture or production setting, can be one of the trickiest things to get right for a business model. But in the food and drink industry, you’re weighed down by the added pressure of knowing how essential control is to delivering safe and high-quality products. 28 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net CONTROL AND AUTOMATION and texture. In-line monitoring and control are often highly automated, as sensors, actuators and control systems are integrated into the production line equipment. These programmable regulators take over making precise measurements in areas such as temperature. Not only are they able to spot inconsistencies, but adjust machinery settings such as cooking or cooling temperatures based on real- time sensor data. This is known as ‘feedback control’, as these adjustments are made using feedback loops which detect deviations from predefined parameters, and autoregulate in response. On-line monitoring refers to continuous data collection and analysis of production processes but, unlike in- line, it may not involve immediate adjustments. On-line control can be used to track the performance of equipment or finished products, using sensors for texture examination, or spectrophotometers and colorimeters to monitor colour across individual items or batches. This data can then be used to make informed decisions and optimisations manually, or through separately automated processes. Data is collected and analysed in real time or near real time, often using computerised systems, which makes this method another easy and ideal partner to automation. When automated systems detect issues or deviations based on a continuous stream of data, they can trigger alerts or notifications to production operators or control systems. Operators can then take appropriate action based on this information at a later convenient time. At-line monitoring involves taking samples or measurements at specific points in the production process, but not directly in the production line. These samples are typically analysed in a laboratory or other dedicated area, which is useful for conducting more detailed and precise testing—like microbial analysis, for instance—away from the fast pace of active production processes. At-line monitoring can be semi- automated for handy machine accuracy when looking over samples, which may be collected manually or through automated sampling systems. Once collected, these samples can be analysed using automated laboratory equipment, such as spectrometers, chromatographs, or automated microbiological testing systems. With data integration, the results of an at-line test can be fed into the overall quality control process through software systems. Automation in this area, while non-essential, helps to reduce human error in the intricacies of sample handling and data recording. Finally, off-line monitoring and control involve testing and analysis of finished food products after they have been produced, and sometimes after they have been packaged. As an end- of-line measure, this method doesn’t impact the production process in real time. Instead, it’s often used as a last look over for quality and compliance before finished batches are prepared for shipping or storage. Because this is so often a control © stock.adobe.com/DedMityayFood & Drink International 29 www.fdiforum.net CONTROL AND AUTOMATION area that goes by feel rather than specific data, off-line monitoring and control are typically the least automated of the methods we’ve mentioned. Samples are manually collected from finished products, or may be taken from the market and tested for attributes like taste, texture and shelf life. Automation comes into off-line most often for more refined or rigorous testing, such as for microbiological safety or chemical composition, as this usually requires advanced laboratory equipment. But beyond that, data management and reporting of any results can be handled automatically, with laboratory information managements systems (or LIMS) used to track samples, test results, and their compliance with quality standards. Each of these monitoring and control methods serves a specific purpose in the food industry, and can work together in a multitude of ways to contribute to the overall quality and safety of food products. The choice or combination of methods your business goes with will depend on factors such as the nature of your product, production volume, or any particular parameters that need to be monitored and controlled. Most food businesses will use a personalised mixture of in-line, on- line, at-line or off-line methods to ensure their best possible products make their way to stores and homes. Knowing the tools at your disposal, you can make informed decisions for quality and process control, based on your goals, and for the best in your products. FOLLOW US WHEN YOU SEE THE PERFORMANCE WHEN YOU SEE THE PRICE WW Versatile thanks to a wide performance range, intuitive and flexible user guidance, low-pulsation dosing, and energy-efficient during operation - all at an attractive initial cost. The new iSTEP XS offers XL performance at XS price ! iSTEP XS Now available iSTEPXS.sera-web.com More info: sales.uk@sera-web.com Tel. 01283 753400 © stock.adobe.com/ParilovNext >