The digital future is here

Revolutionise your workflow through an efficient online food hygiene management app

The global food service market size was worth US$ 3.4 trillion in 2018 and
is expected to reach a value of US$ 4.2 trillion by 2024. 

Friday, 29 November 2019

The demand for accurate food safety quality control has increased significantly in the last couple of years, primarily due to certain factors:

• The global population is on the rise; it will reach approximately 10 billion people by 2050
• The surge in food-borne diseases, adulteration incidents due to lapses in hygiene management practices
• Archaic and fragmented safety testing practices worldwide
• A growing segment of digitally-savvy customers who want information about the safety of the food they consume

How can companies combat these issues at a business level while maintaining efficiency and stability? The answer lies in technology. The food industry needs to capitalise on agile and innovative advancements in food safety techniques to gain consumer trust and move forward towards a sustainable future.

The global food service market size was worth US$ 3.4 trillion in 2018 and is expected to reach a value of US$ 4.2 trillion by 2024. For manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and various stakeholders who intend to make the most of this market’s value – they will need to fundamentally shift their approach and move towards complete digital transformation. 

Food Safety 4.0 is our movement towards that future. 

What is Food Safety 4.0?

Derived from Industry 4.0 principles, Food Safety 4.0 is not only a reflection of how things are done differently but also a digital revolution shaping the way businesses interact with their consumers. Food Safety 4.0 is a movement with a vision to digitise processes to achieve more – at every stage of the food safety value chain.

e-HACCP is TÜV SÜD’s innovative step in that direction. With e-HACCP, companies can digitise their food hygiene management with an easy app. With the current capabilities of automation and digitalisation integrated into the app, reporting and monitoring duties can be automated with the touch of a button.

Ride the digital wave

With e-HACCP, you can go paperless with a smarter approach to quality assurance. By adopting TÜV SÜD’s integrated model, companies can meet their needs for safety, security, quality, and sustainability. With a strong vision of helping companies realise their digital transformation initiatives, e-HACCP is a solution aimed at creating an efficient reporting process for businesses, suppliers and companies worldwide.

Here are 4 benefits of going digital with the e-HACCP flowtify app:

1. Administrative duties get a unified upgrade
   HACCP documentation is often perceived as an annoying evil, as countless paper lists have to be printed out, displayed, collected, evaluated, archived and made available for internal and external controls. The most common issues are:
   ● Incomplete and inaccessible documentation
   ● Time-consuming, tedious documentation with error-prone data
   
   The intuitive flowtify app can automate these mundane tasks associated with reporting to a click, sign and swipe model. Real-time updates, ability to monitor documentation remotely, and live feedback with notifications for various internal and external stakeholders, are some of e-HACCP’s features that companies can deploy to eliminate the drawbacks of paper-based processes.
2. Reduce response management delay
   Response management is a crucial aspect of food safety. In regular paperwork, issues are recorded but sometimes not acted upon, due to lapses in process management. Without strict protocols, the delay in the instruction- to -action- to- reporting cycle may be large and ineffective.
   
   Manufacturers and suppliers need to reduce this time gap significantly to get ahead of the curve. The e-HACCP app is sophisticated, as it provides instant notifications in its reporting system. The biggest plus point of the app is that - the system directly gives users actionable instruction for critical tasks. This is a significant advantage over paper reporting, as it reduces the action time for problem-solving.
3. Regulatory compliance
   Since the practices in food safety testing and hygiene management industry are so disjointed (different countries have different regulations), transnational /cross-country compliance is a high priority for companies. e-HACCP is fully compliant to European standard (VO (EG) 852/2004) and can easily be adapted to the latest regulatory changes.
4. Consistent company-wide standards
   Cloud-based online documentation facilitates company managers to gain insight into all outlets without having to be on the spot. Specified documentation obligations can be inspected and updated across all outlets at any time, ensuring brand protection.
   
   With TÜV SÜD’s expertise, companies can take advantage of:
   ● Guidance throughout the entire process including setting up a detailed role and user management
   ● Efficient training of internal personnel and supplemented by administrative and helpdesk support
   ● Leverage our HACCP experts: testing for validity, proposals for corrective actions, creation of evaluations and trend analyses, warning in case of emerging problems or critical situations.

Efficiency is nothing without accountability

To ensure efficiency and smooth daily operations, audits are a necessary part of a company’s functional workflow. Audits play a key role as:

• regular check-ups are crucial in risk management
• they assist in effective implementation of company standards across all departments and workstreams
• suitable measures can be initiated at an early stage to combat the weaknesses found 

Unfortunately, the main technological tool powering the “audit templates” has traditionally been the error-prone Excel sheet. Not only that,

• execution of audits is often very complex
• reporting is inefficient and inconvenient
• adding images to the reporting process i.e converting to different formats and emailing of audit documents is cumbersome
• corrective measures taken to combat issues are documented on paper and often misplaced

e-Audit powered by flowtify is a single tool that reduces this administrative effort in internal and external audits and is cost-effective. With e-Audit, companies can increase efficiency by almost 50%.

Digital functioning for faster auditing

With e-Audit, audits can be assigned to multiple auditors across multiple locations. Creation of templates for chapters, subchapters or entire audits is easy and different valuation keys can be created for different audit templates.

Scheduling is also easy, as the audits can be scheduled as one time checks and/or at regular intervals. The Web Dashboard speeds up review and approval processes, while calculation tools and intelligent templates provide accuracy and accessibility to audits  . Advanced audit analysis is also possible as overall results are showcased in the dashboard along with preset ratings assigned to them.

Effective and safe operations

Auditors can be actively supported in their checks by using videos, photos and PDFs to their advantage. Once done, audits can be marked as “complete” to avoid redundancy in efforts. As auditors can only see their assigned tasks, the sanctity of the audit is maintained. Another aspect of all company operational processes is the safety and security of their data. The e-Audit tool archives all data for 5 years on servers externally and the data is protected.

The combination of e-Audit with e-HACCP unlocks even greater potential for efficiency and transparency.

With e-Audit, transparency is assured at the highest level. Rights for internal/external auditors, reviewers can be distributed easily, thereby ensuring uninterrupted and efficient workflow. 

With TÜV SÜD, step into the Food Safety 4.0 age

Optimisation of food safety processes requires digital intervention and the time for transformation is now. Contact us for more details and let’s make an impact, together.