Harnessing hardware and software to meet regulations in the food & beverage sector
Jim ten Broeke , Business Development Manager iFactory Europe , Advantech
Few markets are as highly regulated as food & beverage production , Issues like facility and equipment hygiene , ingredient storage and handling , and operative hygiene must be carefully managed to achieve and demonstrate safe , legal production . Any company falling short and allowing sub-standard products to leave its facility , whether unsafe or not , risks potentially disastrous commercial and reputational ramifications .
While many standards such as FDA and EU regulations are recognised internationally , compliance does not begin and end there . Many global regions have their own regulations , and many countries , and indeed individual sectors , place additional legal requirements on producers to implement and prove the safety of their practices .
In particular , the production of ‘ hard copy ’ records , weeks after manufacture , is rarely acceptable these days . Instead , companies must generally be able to produce , almost in real time , detailed information on each production batch , country of origin of ingredients , and so on .
The detailed and stringent nature of these regulations means the use of ‘ standard ’ industrial hardware and software is rarely appropriate – or even possible . Compliance must be physically built into these technologies , especially in software which invariably must be purposedesigned for this sector .
Furthermore , any changes to either hardware or software invariably mean the entire system must be recertified meaning
20 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk
Optimal functionality , complete accountability , long-term robustness and resilience , long term support