Food industry needs intelligent software to protect itself – NSF International

The subsidiary of NSF International said the system, formerly known as Aspirago, provides companies a way to manage their global supply chains.

Aspirago users are being served by the TraQtion system without interruption and any new upgraded modules are available. They also have an opportunity to add expanded functionality to support food safety programs, said the firm.

Sending alerts for problem areas​

The software can scan and interpret data and alert clients when a supplier, product or site is out of compliance.

TraQtion (pronounced traction) provides quality and compliance tools to retail chains and manufacturers with thousands of users in 90 countries.

Sireesha Mandava, senior director, information management services at NSF International, said with millions of data points to track to keep customers and brands protected, the food industry needs intelligent software, not just merely tracking the transactions.

“​We are seeing a lot of interest from the food industry including small and medium sized companies as well as global companies in this software system,” ​she told FoodQualityNews.

“Our experience has shown that there is a tipping point where companies can't manually track these transactions using email, excel and other tracking methods. This is where TraQtion’s intelligent compliance software comes into service. This tipping point is different for each company.​

“Each TraQtion client can define their brand standards in the system to a very detailed level and then the system automatically applies that to the data (that keeps updating all the time) to calculate the risk or compliance rating.”​

NSF International has invested TraQtion and over the next three years, will put an additional $6.5m to further expand functionality.

Upgrades include a compliance engine that scans, evaluates and interprets the data to ensure it meets requirements. It alerts clients of higher risk profile suppliers, products and sites for quick follow-up actions, which helps protect consumers and the client’s brand. 

Client driven demand ​

Mandava said the demand for compliance software is client driven as they seek to meet regulations and brand standards but FSMA and its FSVP program have increased client awareness.

“​TraQtion helps companies go beyond just tracking data. With NSF International’s rich expertise in this area, the compliance engine does all the crunching of data on a continuous basis to help the client focus on what is important now,” ​she said. ​

“TraQtion has the flexibility to include brand standards along with regulations. This flexibility provides companies the option to select the TraQtion modules that are important to their business.  ​

“Retailers, restaurants and food manufacturers can set their standards for their supply chain and the system tracks what is needed (e.g., documents, questionnaires, audits, corrective actions, products, tests, inspections, complaints etc) to alert the right people at the right time. ​

“And then all the details are analyzed by the TraQtion compliance engine to quickly show which of these areas need attention.”​

TraQtion’s mobile audit app helps perform audits on the go and it can be offline so the client can audit even in a walk-in cooler. 

There are plans to introduce more apps focusing on specific functions in the future, added NSF International.