Findus invests in GS1’s standard for traceability in ultra-modern facility

When Findus builds a new factory and cold store in Bjuv, in the south of Sweden, GS1’s standard for traceability is an important part of the SEK 600 million investment. Being able to trace throughout the entire supply and manufacturing process makes for efficient handling and a high level of food safety.

Findus is one of Sweden’s leading food companies with over 200 frozen products and 50 food cupboard products in their range. In addition they market over 400 products for the restaurant and food service sectors.

A total of some 120,000 tonnes or 350,000 pallets of food are handled annually in Findus’ facilities. The new plant accounts for 35,000 tonnes per year. This makes high demands on the company’s processes.

“Food safety is critical for us and we have been working for a long time to extend traceability. The new facility we are taking into use in the spring and summer is fully equipped with the latest technology for traceability according to GS1’s standards,” says Erik Börtemark, Supply Chain Director at Findus.

Everything is scanned

In the new facility in Bjuv most things are automated and everything is scanned both on the way into and out of the plant as well as throughout the production process. This provides control and quality assurance so that the products are always handled correctly.

“We have developed our traceability process significantly in recent years. At the same time we have good control over both internal and external complaints and deviations. We also closely monitor consumer opinion and whether another manufacturer who uses the same supplier as us has problems with raw materials.”

“Findus has many suppliers all across Europe and in this project has done lots of work with them to improve traceability,” explains Erik Börtemark. “Among other things by requiring suppliers to follow GS1’s standard in the layout and information content of pallet labels and their placement.”

“It has been relatively easy to get our European suppliers on board, but sometimes it can be difficult to get them to use the correct label layout since they want to design them themselves. Other parts of the world need a bit more work. For example, we buy a number of products from Asia where logistics are different, such as containers being loaded differently, and the use of pallet labels is a challenge. But we have had good help from GS1 in China and Sweden to persuade them to produce labels that comply with GS1’s standard.”

Consumer demands

Karolin Catela, who works with standardisation, development and implementation of traceability at GS1 says that Sweden is in the forefront regarding food safety.

“We have made relatively good progress in Sweden in the use of GS1’s standards for traceability, especially in the food industry.”

She points to a number of factors that have heightened interest in reliable traceability in recent years. Not least consumer demands for more and correct information about product, such as origin, as well as major food scandals, tighter legislative demands and traceability legislation. This has meant that the food industry and authorities in many countries are now looking at ways to handle food traceability information.

“GS1 continues, for example, to cooperate at the global level in expert groups within the European Commission to promote better traceability through the use of GS1’s standard. This feels particularly important since a company’s supply chain stretches over the whole world and more and more products are bought online,” she says.

Expanded user group

Almost all food producers and retail chains currently use GS1’s standard for identification with a unique item number together with barcodes on packages. Using GS1’s standard and toolkit makes it possible to trace individual products, items, packages, pallets and units throughout the supply chain from raw materials and manufacturing all the way out to the store.

In order to recall food quickly and efficiently a working process for traceability is needed. GS1 works both locally and globally together with many different sectors to develop efficient solutions that connect the existing information flows between manufacturer and buyer.

“To get more sectors involved we will be expanding our existing user group for traceability with new members during the spring. The aim is to reach consensus on how to meet the demands made on traceability and develop the tools needed to enable it,” says Karolin Catela.