Icicle Technologies Inc., Richmond, BC, launched its new enhanced traceability feature for the Iciclefood safety management system, making Iciclethe most comprehensive food safety technology solution available for food producers of all sizes, from HACCP generation to recall management.

Executing quick and efficient traceability is a critical issue for public health and safety when a recall is issued for a product or ingredient, but even though there were over 600 food product recalls in the United States and Canada alone last year, many bootstrapped companies find it next to impossible to afford stand-alone traceability software.

By integrating enhanced traceability technology with a core food safety management system, Icicle has brought food safety excellence within reach for small to mid-sized food facilities, from local farms to specialty food manufacturers to food processing plants.

Prevention of recalls should always be a top priority for food producers, who can mitigate risks through compliance with government-mandated programs like HACCP and HARPC and the adoption of the latest technology. At the same time, recalls can never be ruled out completely since even hyper-vigilant manufacturers can find themselves bearing the brunt of a recall that triggered by a supplier. Recalls cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year, with over half of all recalls carrying a price tag of over $10 million — even without counting hidden costs in public trust and brand reputation.

Icicle’s enhanced traceability cycle includes four essential components: receiving, production runs, shipping and recalls that are seamlessly integrated into food safety programs. As ingredients arrive at a facility and are transformed into products, Icicle’s traceability capabilities monitors every step of the process by tracking specific lots of incoming ingredients through to specific lots of outgoing products, thereby providing the necessary data to pinpoint and retrieve products should they need to be recalled. By acting on already gathered data, the systemenables food producers to quickly resolve food safety challenges and minimize the fallout of a recall with detailed precision in identifying affected products.

Following the release of Icicle’sSmart Process and Hazard Suggestion intelligent algorithm earlier this year, the integration of enhanced traceability into Iciclemarks another step towards Icicle Technologies' vision of innovative food safety automation.