Food Industry and Quality Control
In a news
scoop provided by in San Francisco affiliate of NBC, there was a grainy video
coverage of large multi temperature trucks dropping food supplies at a shade to
be picked hours later up by pickup trucks. This caused widespread reaction in
the food and food service industry starting from complete outrage to utter
disbelief. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, how would you react if you
realize that the gallon of milk that you bought from your local supermarket
yesterday, was left out in the sun for three hours before it was picked up by
the store clerk and put in the freezer section? It's the same.
Since then,
the company in question has taken multiple steps to make sure that this does
not happen. The drop zones, which are expected to be temperature controlled
have been discontinued. But this begs the question of how do the suppliers,
distributors and retailers maintain the quality as required at various
transition points. This is especially true for perishables like fresh poultry,
dairy and produce.
Typically, the
suppliers pick and pack the goods in a temperature controlled environment,
label it for expiration date and temperature zone. Then they are transported to
different distribution centers in a dry, cooler and freezer trucks as
applicable. Each truck is equipped with a thermometer, which records the
maximum and minimum temperature during the trip. At the conclusion of the trip,
before the goods are unloaded to the staging area, the temperature on the truck
is audited. If the temperature is beyond the tolerance for the good being
supplied, the items are discarded.
The goods are
taken to the temperature controlled warehouse and stored there. Once it is
ready to be moved to the customer location, temperature, days to expiration and
route duration are calculated. The good is picked to be shipped if all the
conditions are met.
Typically,
goods are shipped either in multi temperature trucks are single temperature
trucks based on the volume of supplies. During drop-off, the driver takes the
temperature again and adds to the audit log. This is added to the BOM that is
provided to the customer along with the goods.
Any deviation
is very strictly dealt with and punishable by hefty fines as well as bans in
most of the states. FDA (Food and Drugs Authority) does random audits of the
warehouse as well as the drop-off trucks to ensure that the process is complied
with.
After all, we love our morning cereals and milk and that
milk better be good!
Posted on behalf of Aruni Acharya, Sr. Principal
