Everything have their own pros and cons
right? So does ICT usage in food safety. Long short story, there must be a lot
of the advantages compared to the disadvantages right? So now, we are going to
explore the world of food safety based on ICT through its advantages and
disadvantages. Let’s go!
(Press the button!)
So first of all, we are going to take a
look at ICT advantages as the good always comes first*I think*.
The advantages:
Traceability system as the main hero of food
safety.
(Picture credits to http://trishwylie.blogspot.my/2012/07/what-makes-hero.html)
1.
As a proof
(Picture
credit to https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkas:Kebun.jpg)
Traceability is very important
especially in developing and under developed countries. Why? Well firstly, the
countries must concerned in protecting their cottage industries. Whether
mangoes from India or seafood from Indonesia, every country wants to protect
their unique products. As we may know from some food safety outbreaks over the
last ten years, a food safety incident in one product gives influence toward
the entire sector. So here comes traceability as the lifesaver as it allows
these countries and supplier to confidently prove that their foods are safe and
not related from any ongoing food safety incident.
2.
Food police
Secondly, traceability helps remove
illegal activities within the supply chain. For example, fishing with an
overdue license or overfishing without a license, traceability enables the
supplier to give customers the confidence that what they are buying is legal,
safe and fairly traded. On the other hand, the traceability that is getting
better will contribute to facilitate international trade. This is done by
taking the food that is domestically produced to markets outside the region and
creating a demand for it.
3.
Long term warranty
And last but not least, there is a
significant grow movement around the world on sourcing and buying locally. As
more consumers demand local, non-genetically modified, sustainable, and organic
foods, traceability is the only tool that can be used to prove to the consumers
when they are purchasing and consuming a product that makes these claims.
Now, let’s move on to the disadvantages:
1.
Time
consuming.
Obviously,
the negative effect of traceability is it takes extra time and effort to keep
up with the tracing of requirements during the project. It also increases the
effort of maintenance, especially in a progressing system that needs numerous
changes for future releases. However, the effort to perform traceability is not
so negative if the information captured is used in the future in order to save
time and effort.
(Credits to http://qsadvisor.com/2014/08/guide-change-management/)
2. Management changing.
An article in 1998 had mentioned
that "Establishing and maintaining requirements traceability is a
politically sensitive and expensive endeavor. Developers are not really known
and realize for their love of documentation. Traceability can be a side effect
of their daily productive work rather than stately additional
bureaucracy”. Therefore, when the
traceability process is established, a certain change management needs to be
employed, especially with regard to developers, who need to be convinced that the
minor daily effort of requirements tracing will have payoffs in the future.
 |
| (Credit to http://d4nations.com/webpubl/articles/import---what-is-the-meaning-of-the-word-import.html) |
3. Import problems.
Traceability also might be difficult
to encounter especially in a developing country. This is because
multi-ingredient foods may include materials from a variety of food chains and
countries, so the developing country may have to rely on the traceability
systems of other countries up to the point of import.
4.
Checklist
updates.
The traceability system requires
food supply chain owner to be capable of identifying and go through records
maintained by the company, the immediate supplier, and customer of an
identified food material. Although even the smallest of food businesses
typically use some form of an accounting system, the normal processes and
records related to purchasing, receiving and shipping products are sometimes
insufficient to fulfill the traceability system requirement or may be
unaccompanied by effective internal traceability or maintenance of the onward
genuine of the material identifier.
And there you have it! The ups and downs of the traceability system. In life, there must be good things and bad things so does food traceability system.
Thanks for spending your time reading and do hit the comment section below. Do leave questions if there is any curiosity bubbling from inside.
