EtQ
Safety Compliance through Supply Chain Traceability

Food recalls and outbreaks of high-risk events have brought the focus on safety and quality of food processing systems, challenging companies to demonstrate their commitment to food safety and compliance.

Adding to it, regulatory compliance is overriding in the Food and Beverages (F&B) sector, demanding visibility and control not only into a company’s own processes, but also down the supply chain. The traceability of ingredients or materials from the farm to factory also attains added significance in this scenario. “Our unique knowledge of Quality, EHS, Operational Risk and Compliance processes, enhances overall quality operations and management systems to help companies outpace change in compliance management for businesses in the F&B sector,” says Morgan Palmer, CTO, EtQ.

By having a system that gives the visibility, centralization, and control of the entire supply chain, a company can essentially be ready for audits within a short span. EtQ's Food Safety Management Software helps companies maintain quality to these initiatives, while providing a flexible workflow platform to adapt to changing business processes without programming. The automated system focuses on food safety and quality, and automates the processes that are in place through flexible workflows, business rules and Web-based forums. Designed uniquely, the software minimizes the number of corrective actions using an advanced filtering model. The closed-loop corrective action is pre-configured to initiate various post-corrective action processes, including electronic distribution of CAPA results, document control, change management, and employee training.

With diversified functionalities built around a common platform, offered on the cloud, on premises and for the mobile ecosystem, EtQ’s unified Food Safety Management Software System is built sturdy for handling any processes. “Everything is traceable in our system and that is the real key for detection of anomalies, correction and audit readiness. The system records any particular event and provides a whole traceability report demonstrating the entire history to the food auditor,” claims Palmer.

EtQ’s solution proves to be easily configurable. For instance, a client having operations across 20 countries can build on the same solution for more than 70 locations. The same solution will also suffice for smaller scale operations, such as a grower with only five users.

One of EtQ’s clients had challenges in supply chain visibility. Their original system was able to take supplier information and carry out inspection; however, it lacked the visibility and the reaction time. With suppliers’ and their own systems operating on a siloed basis, there was a challenge to communicate with the supplier on defective or questionable goods.

The client wanted to collaborate on the processes to address issues faster, for mutual benefit. They implemented EtQ’s platform, set up their own food quality and safety system to take any sort of adverse event and move it to a cloud portal for suppliers—all encapsulated within the EtQ system. The client could pass on specific, supplier-relevant information to the supplier for them to respond in real-time to any adverse event and take corrective action. This in turn increased productivity and reduced time to market.

Everything is traceable in our system and that is the real key for detection of anomalies, correction and audit readiness

EtQ's solution is pre-configured to address the requirements of HACCP, ISO 22000GFSI, FSMA and various other food safety processes. The company is continuing on its ideas to innovate around the concepts of visibility and control, allowing customers to derive more analytics from their data, to drive innovation and extend the reach and knowledge that they gather to serve their clients better.

EtQ’s tools also help foster corporate social responsibility, by allowing companies not only look into the picture from an operational or business standpoint but also being able to factor in ethical sourcing and sustainability—for a better tomorrow.