_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Food
Traceability
Any companies selling to or operating in the EU for example, will soon need to be compliant with the EU Deforestation Regulation( EUDR). In force from 2023, though the implementation has been pushed back until the end of this year( 2025), the EUDR ensures that core commodities, including coffee, palm oil and cocoa, and their derived products, must be deforestation-free. Any affected company will need to trace supply chains, assess and mitigate risk and submit due diligence statements for any product inscope. And despite multiple extensions, our survey in 2024 uncovered that- though the majority of companies feel prepared for the change- a fifth still didn’ t feel prepared for the implementation of EUDR, highlighting the scale of the challenge.
This year will also see the first set of statements submitted by larger companies affected by the EU’ s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive( CSRD). This sweeping piece of legislation significantly ups the ante on the granularity of sustainability reporting with required metrics spanning pollution, waste reduction, biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions, among many others.
And though the US remains less tightly regulated on ESG reporting than the EU for now, there are signs of that changing. For example, the Food Traceability Rule set to be implemented by the FDA will require certain food businesses to maintain similarly detailed records about the origins and movement of specific foods within the supply chain. Earlier this year, the regulator said it would extend the date for enforcement until July 2028 but that still gives impacted companies only three short years to comply.
From fragmented to streamlined
Collecting and curating this level of traceability data can throw up enormous challenges for food and beverage companies.
A single product may have ingredients sourced from multiple different countries or producers, for example, each processed and transported individually to reach a manufacturing plant. From there they could be distributed to a vast ecosystem of different retailers, each with their own data requirements. That’ s without even touching on the end-of-life disposal stage that, with concepts like extended producer responsibility gaining traction, also looks set to become an ESG metric.
It’ s a lot to navigate. And though manual reporting tools( some companies tell us they still use Excel spreadsheets) may have worked in the past, when traceability data was narrow and for internal use only, that approach is unlikely to cut it any longer.
It’ s why platforms like Foods Connected are using technology to help businesses to centralize their vast reams of data and link traceability to ESG metrics in a way that helps turn fragmented datasets into something more cohesive and, frankly, digestible.
Because the bottom line is that sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have. It’ s increasingly demanded by customers, investors and consumers alike. And traceability data is the key to unlocking the information that companies need to make progress- and prove it too. ■
Dr. Stephanie Brooks www. foodsconnected. com
Dr. Stephanie Brooks is Head of Research & Innovation at Foods Connected. Her experience spans more than ten years in academia, food manufacturing and food tech. With an undergraduate degree in Food Science and a PhD in Food Supply Chain Management, Stephanie has spent her career working in food manufacturing environments in an R & D capacity, as well as working on and managing several multi-millionpound research projects while working for Queen’ s University Belfast. Stephanie has worked with Foods Connected for the last several years, working on innovation projects and implementing traceability and AI solutions within the food industry.
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