As the world grows more eager and encouraged to trace the intricate details of the global food supply chain, the concept of traceability, what it entails and what it can achieve continues to expand. And so does the food industry’s research, knowledge, adoption and management of it. Even regulatory bodies are expressing their dedication to the development and evolution of strategies and guidance for embracing and engaging in traceability – just take the FDA’s recent release of their long-awaited strategic blueprint for the New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative, for example.
Embedded in our company history, makeup and mission, traceability is a fundamental pillar of what we do at FoodLogiQ. Providing complete visibility into a product’s journey through the supply chain – and understanding its trajectory at the batch-lot level from farm to fork – is an integral way in which we support our partners and connect the world’s food supply chain.
It’s also something that we continue to advance, test the boundaries of and improve both within and beyond our platform. We know that at its core, a traceability program is nothing without consistently accurate, timely and quality data. And as a result, we’ve focused our efforts on providing extensive, detailed data and quality reporting that is available in various digestible, manipulable formats. Exception Reports, recently introduced as part of our Spring 2020 release of FoodLogiQ Connect, are a direct result of these efforts.
Diving Deeper into Exception Reports
A big element of FoodLogiQ’s product focus in 2020 has been providing our customers with a full, comprehensive picture of what’s occurring within their supply chains - as well as how that connects to overall processes and the ability to uphold overall food quality and brand security. However, it’s also important to consider what might be missing.
New to FoodLogiQ’s Track + Trace solution, Exception Reports enable brands to identify missing event data, as well as review occurrences that vary from the norm. This gives users access to a more comprehensive picture of what is and isn’t happening within their supply chain, in addition to allowing them to proactively prevent and manage labeling, process or product issues.
As part of the Spring release, FoodLogiQ introduced several different types of Exception Reports:
- Supplier & Distributor Location Event Gap Reports: Measure traceability program engagement by identifying when a supplier or distribution location hasn’t submitted events over a specified period of time. As a result, brands can identify which partners are not compliant with their traceability program.
- Supplier & Distributor Unknown GTIN Reports: Identify unknown, unshared or inactive Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) that are shipped to a brand’s locations by suppliers or distributors, and are segmented by location category. These reports also allow brands to discover partners that are not in compliance with their traceability program.
- Restaurant Event Gap Report: Identifies restaurants that have not submitted events over a specified amount of time, and is sorted by the number of days since their last submission. This report helps food companies review and ensure restaurant compliance, and notifies them of potential changes to business operations.
- Restaurant Unknown GTIN Report: Identifies unknown or unshared GTINs that are received at restaurants, thereby notifying brands when locations receive unexpected items or potentially locally order outside of their established supply chains.
Through these reports, FoodLogiQ’s goal is to preemptively and proactively inform our partners of problems or variances from their homeostasis as it relates to traceability events. This is to say that, through Exception Reports, we aim to give our customers the immediate information they need to: identify deviances from their shipping and receiving norms, discover areas of non-compliance and take the action(s) necessary to uphold their traceability program standards. And we’re looking forward to observing the new traceability data insights, trends and informed decisions our partners are able to discover and execute in doing so.
If you’re interested in learning more about Exception Reports or FoodLogiQ’s Track + Trace solution, get in touch with us. We’d love to start a conversation.
