Reinforce digital food quality control with FIELDEAS Forms

In March, the 21st Food Safety and Quality Congress of the association of manufacturers and distributors AECOC took place, where the importance of carrying out a good digital food quality control was highlighted and the “re-evolution” of the food safety model was addressed.

The main problem raised at the round table “Improving the precautionary labeling model” is that the current legal framework, Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, does not clearly define risk management mechanisms and consumer information regarding the management of the adventitious presence of allergens in food products and their precautionary labeling. .

This situation is generating a large volume of food alerts, which makes it difficult for companies to act and complicated for allergic consumers.

Precautionary labeling for digital food safety and quality

As detailed by the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN), the European Commission has not yet initiated actions regarding information on the possible unintended presence of allergens, while in the market there are operators that highlight the allergens that appear in the precautionary allergen labeling and others that do not, so that uniformity of criteria is required in the labeling of these products.

In view of this lack of clarity, the Codex Alimentarius (a set of international and homogeneous food standards) is working on a new way to clarify allergen risk assessment.

This work focuses primarily on improving PAL, precautionary allergen labeling, and aims to standardize when and how the presence of trace amounts of foods that can cause allergies, in addition to the 14 notifiable allergens, should be indicated on packaging.

Situations of food alert

During the AECOC congress, the more than 240 executives in attendance were asked what was the main reason for the generation of food alerts due to the presence of allergens not declared on the label.

39.42% of the respondents pointed to the lack of communication or updating of the allergen profile after changes in the raw material. In other words, a coordination error between supplier and manufacturer.

In this regard, it is particularly important to have a data collection system that allows the integration of all the captured information with the corporate systems of the operators or manufacturers, so that the information can be easily accessed and shared.

FIELDEAS Forms is the ideal tool for this, as it allows digitizing all digital food quality control forms, reducing errors and offering a permanent connection.

Furthermore, in a process of prevention, the solution also allows to automate alerts to suppliers when the analysis of raw materials performed in the laboratory differs from what is stipulated.

Once the audit of raw materials has been carried out and the results have been entered in the digital form, the FIELDEAS Forms platform generates a report that is sent to the supplier via e-mail.

FIELDEAS Forms also provides a supplier portal so that suppliers can consult the results of their product audits.

In this way, a fluid communication is established between suppliers and manufacturers, which provides a solution to the main reason for the generation of food alerts due to the presence of allergens not declared on the label.

Risk management in digital food safety and quality

The second block of the AECOC congress dealt with “Risk management: from hazard detection to expected hazard”.

In food safety, despite the efforts and resources devoted to product and process self-monitoring, there is no such thing as zero risk.

Every year there are alerts related to the presence of pathogens in food products that have passed the companies’ own self-monitoring.

Beyond detecting pathogens in the product, progress must be made in a model that makes it possible to know or estimate the level of risk associated with a batch and to be able to make management decisions based on risk assessment, rather than on the mere detection of a hazard in an analytical test.

In this sense, during the congress it was pointed out that the critical limit should go beyond the legislation and, therefore, a quantitative evaluation should be carried out including several typical deviations to detect the real risk of a batch.

Batch sorting for digital food safety and quality

The analysis of food lots to detect the risk of pathogens for consumption must be carried out in a rigorous manner, as well as their classification.

With FIELDEAS Forms it is possible to classify the batches analyzed as suitable or unsuitable in a simple, agile and digital way. In addition, a detailed report is automatically extracted from the data entered in the digital form to provide an overview of the lots analyzed.

In more detail, batch sorting begins with the sample labeling process. The FIELDEAS Forms digital form allows to register the sample after scanning the associated label, which allows to have an exhaustive control of each of the batches.

Artificial intelligence at the service of digital food quality

The last round table of the AECOC congress dealt with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in food integrit. As the experts pointed out, the food quality sector is now beginning to discover the benefits of this tool.

The main use of AI in this sector focuses on demand forecasting, product development and the detection of potential risks.

For AI to really work in the food safety and quality sector, it is important to feed it with data. These must be well captured and labeled, points in which digital forms play a very relevant role.

Collecting data from laboratories and producers in digital forms allows all this information to be fed into the operator’s AI models, so that when a food alert arises, the necessary data can be consulted quickly and securely.

In other words, digital forms such as FIELDEAS Forms are a very valuable source of information for AI systems in the food safety and quality sector. They generate quality data, which helps the food industry’s production model to improve from reactive to proactive.

Thanks to the flexibility of the digital form design, FIELDEAS Forms allows data capture in a dynamic way, without errors or missing information, which allows obtaining different types of data to be used in AI algorithms for food control and safety.

This is how FIELDEAS Forms helps you in digital food quality control

Power your operations by creating intelligent, agile and intuitive forms with FIELDEAS Forms, the tool that anticipates your needs.

• Digitizes all forms for 100% efficient food safety and quality control operations.
• Optimize your management and eliminate errors in data capture.
• Validated information when it is produced directly, by means of automatic rules.
• There are no delay times. Using Over-the-Air (OTA) technology, it allows the updating of company process changes directly in the food quality control operations.
• Instant final results. “Report On Time” once the quality control is finished, avoiding administrative time with little added value.
• Global vision of the activity. “Information, not just data”, define and develop your KPIs to be able to make decisions quickly.
• Always connected. FIELDEAS Forms allows you to integrate all captured information with your corporate systems.
• Complete security of your data during the whole process. From capturing information through access encryption to sending encrypted information through secure HTTPS connections.

Powering your operations

The creation of forms, in the hands of those who truly understand the processes. Use our templates or create new forms by drag & drop, connect them to your operations and forget about the technical stuff.

Empower your employees

FIELDEAS Forms makes even the most complex work simple. An intuitive interface, which works offline.

Give your team the opportunity to complete all the information in one place, instantly.

Make your technology stronger

A solution ready for food quality control work and ready to be added to your company’s infrastructure.

We integrate with multiple PLM, Field Service Management, logistics and transportation management software solutions and different backoffice systems, so that your work processes improve, without stopping.