Trends, Changes And Verification For Supplier Management

By Steve Dowd

The farm-to-fork chain is more interlinked than ever, with a greater number of safety measures and checks in place to keep food safe. A more comprehensive, holistic approach to food safety includes the enhanced assessment and management of risks in the earliest stages of food and beverage production.

Today’s food and beverage companies are more conscious of supply chain metrics, overseeing and managing their suppliers to not only check if incoming goods were received but to assess the quality of those goods and how they affect their products. Through better supplier management manufacturers are working to minimize risks and optimize quality essentially at every turn.

Part of this expanded emphasis on supplier management stems from a wide-ranging culture of food safety and manufacturers’ goals of running a tight operation while staying out of the news with recalls or incidents.  Another driver of enhanced supplier management is legislation like the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which regulates preventive controls for human food, including supply chain preventive controls.