Quality Assurance Through Responsible and Traceable Efforts
A CRUCIAL CONTROL SYSTEM
Traceability or product tracing is defined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) as “the ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stage(s) of production, processing and distribution”. Traceability within food control systems is applied as a tool to control food hazards, provide reliable product information and guarantee product authenticity. This form of control system plays a crucial role in ensuring food and public health safety. As food safety challenges intensify worldwide, global traceability is needed more than ever. Today’s traceability system must be interoperable and scalable, providing all stakeholders in the food supply chain with an easy way to collaborate and share information. Retailers, suppliers, distributors and consumers – are all demanding fast, accurate, and complete information that can be seamlessly accessed across traceability systems.
At IMC, our fully-integrated organic coconut sugar supply chain has been rigorously audited and certified by the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard. It is the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked, as well as introduced with food safety culture requirements, define food fraud, and reduce audit burden through additional modules. Through our BRCGS certified and audited traceability processes, we are able to offer quality assurance at all times by distinguishing good suppliers from the bad ones at the earliest possible stages. Being an integrated producer of the entire supply chain, the advantages are exponential as we are able to detect and prevent problems immediately throughout each phase of production and help us recall procedures when necessary.
At IMC, our fully-integrated organic coconut sugar supply chain has been rigorously audited and certified by the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard. It is the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked, as well as introduced with food safety culture requirements, define food fraud, and reduce audit burden through additional modules. Through our BRCGS certified and audited traceability processes, we are able to offer quality assurance at all times by distinguishing good suppliers from the bad ones at the earliest possible stages. Being an integrated producer of the entire supply chain, the advantages are exponential as we are able to detect and prevent problems immediately throughout each phase of production and help us recall procedures when necessary.
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Despite having Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the goal of social sustainability could not be properly achieved by many. The main reason is the failure to incorporate the concepts of CSR into internal control objectives. This is why we utilise a hybrid method by integrating our Internal Control System (ICS) teams into both our CSR programs and traceability systems. Through the ICS teams’ supervision, we can provide our farmers with more appropriate training to upgrade themselves with better tools, better equipment, and the community support they need. The ICS teams also track field management performances and this method of monitoring has shown an increase in the productivity of our farmers. It also prevents any form of data falsification as good performing suppliers in our supply chain are motivated to always improve the quality of their output for better rewards.
It is our firm belief that we can achieve the best quality product at the most competitive pricing whilst passing along the monetary and social benefits to the heart of our company – the hardworking farmers at IMC, through responsible, sustainable, and stringent food safety culture.
