Food
safety remains a priority throughout the whole supply chain. From manufacturer,
its suppliers and logistics service providers, to a retailer and ultimately the
end-user, critical care needs to be applied to ensure that food safety and
hygiene are not compromised.
It
has become more than a necessity, but an obligation for the logistics service
providers to provide clients with necessary controls to ensure best practices
and operations when it comes to food safety and hygiene. This is even more
pertinent within the perishable and chilled industry, as compliance to
temperature controls and inventory management for short product life is a
non-negotiable.
Today’s
client expects peace of mind. They want to focus on their core business, and
leave the rest to experts in their respective fields. It is the logistics
service provider’s responsibility to ensure quality product reaches the
consumer at all times. Indeed, it is incumbent on the manufacturers to ensure
product process standards are adhered to, proper packaging is in place and that
the entire supply chain processes are taken into account before approaching
service providers.
Where
food is concerned, some factors cannot be neglected, for example, clean
facilities, internal and external site housekeeping, temperature controls, pest
control, and good food product traceability in case of product recalls. Another
key factor that that is important is reverse logistics and all the challenges
that go with this process.
Within
the supply chain, there’s always product returned or ordering inefficiencies. With
this in mind, it is important to ensure that logs are managed and that quality
service is provided to the customer.
Stringent
processes should be created and followed in terms of managing reverse logistics
as well as understanding the complexity of this process compared with forward
logistics.
The realities of reverse logistics call for close collaboration with all parties involved in the supply chain process to make sure that product safety standards are met, proper training is implemented and food safety and standards regulations are adhered to.
Compliance
Logistics
service providers should ensure compliance and be audited regularly. Adopt a
programme and:
Transportation of Perishable Foods
One
of the key challenges or contributing factors leading to food risks or
inefficiencies in the logistics industry is transportation. There is a need to
become a lot more agile in order to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.
Handling fragile products, for example, dairy products like yoghurt – with
stacking constraints to minimise the risk of product damage to the sensitive
lower boxes during transit - is a challenge. Furthermore, stacking palletised
perishable goods on top of each other is impractical, considering their fragile
nature. Unique solutions are a necessity in this environment such as a double
decker solution in insulated fibreglass truck bodies and trailers for optimal
use of trailer volumetric loading capacity.
Contributed by: Friedel
Spies: Business Development Director South Africa, ID Logistics
