The Best Food Manufacturing Software

Food manufacturers face unique challenges regarding food spoilage and regulatory compliance. Moving ingredients and products rapidly through the supply chain is vital to maintaining profitability. Food manufacturing software relieves many of the challenges of an unforgiving industry.

This guide will help you select food manufacturing software suited to your business:

What Is Food Manufacturing Software?

Food manufacturing software helps you keep track of raw materials required to make products to ensure you keep the right production schedule and ingredients on hand in order to meet demand. Traceability is especially important in a food manufacturing system. Should contaminations be found in any of the products, manufacturers, stores, and customers need to be able to easily identify which batches were affected. Knowing which batches were affected will save you a lot of time and money when you have to track down and get rid of affected products.

Keeping recipes secure is another benefit of manufacturing ERP software built for food companies. You'll be able to ensure consistent, high-quality products with recipe management functionality. Along with recipe management, ingredient substitutes and batch scaling is often included. You can easily make adjustments to product quantities and recipes based on the inventory you have on hand. These fully-integrated systems can be considered an industry-specific type of ERP software.

Some food manufacturing systems can also help you plan for seasonal demand. Specific ingredients only being readily available during certain times of the year will affect pricing and product quantities. With food manufacturing software, you'll be able to plan ahead for these variances.

Core Functionality of Food Manufacturing Software

Traceability in Food Manufacturing

Traceability in food manufacturing software lets you track ingredients or food products that are intended for human consumption. The ingredients and products are tracked throughout the entire production cycle from primary production to processing and packaging to retail distribution and consumer purchasing.

Traceability allows you to respond quickly and recall or get rid of affected inventory if an issue arises. The earlier in the supply chain an issue is noticed and taken care of, the better. Contaminated products reaching the end consumer will cause health problems and tarnish your brand reputation.

Many regulatory agencies require traceability to improve food safety. Some compliances food manufacturers need to keep in mind include:

• 2002 Bioterrorism Act - Tracking every product batch and match ingredients with their individual batch number.
• Current Good Manufacturing Processes (cGMP) - Keep thorough records of sanitation, staff qualifications, and equipment verification to minimize contamination or errors in the manufacturing process.
• Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) - Track and monitor food storage, handling, and preparation processes to reduce hazard risks and take corrective action as needed.
• FDA 21 CFR Part 11 - Ensure electronic records are authentic and secure with digital electronic signatures, validation scripts, audit trails, and additional security features.

Food Manufacturing Software Benefits

• Meet regulatory compliance standards: Food manufacturing software keeps all your data stored and well-organized, and automates reporting, so you can prove regulatory compliance.
• Ensure product consistency with recipe management: Recipes are stored within the software system to ensure the right ingredients and quantities are being used. Food manufacturing software also has batch scaling to ensure the product quality is consistent when you need to make more or less of the product.
• Increased profitability with reduced waste: Food manufacturing software helps you cut down on waste by planning for demand and keeping track of the ingredients you currently have in your inventory, so you don't have to worry about overstocking or ordering ingredients at the wrong time.
• Improved supply chain management processes: Demand forecasting functionalities in food manufacturing software give you a deeper look into current and past trends. Being able to plan purchasing and production based on demand forecasts helps you more accurately determine supply and demand, increasing your ROI.
• Manage recalled ingredients or products: Organized, detailed records of your ingredients and products within the food manufacturing software system will allow you to quickly narrow down items that need to be recalled. A recall can be needed if the packaging is mislabeled, allergens aren't declared, or products were cross-contaminated or spoiled. You need to be able to notify affected customers of the particular product or ingredient that is affected, where it came from, and where it was distributed as soon as you find the issue.

What Does Your Business Need?

Depending on the size of your business, you'll want to prioritize certain features over others:

Small to Medium Businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses should look for software that has compliance management to ensure your business stays within state and federal regulations. Recipe management functionalities are also helpful for small and medium businesses to keep food quality consistent. Your food manufacturing system should also integrate easily with QuickBooks or another existing accounting system. If cost is a concern, some cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) food manufacturing software has a lower up-front cost and a low monthly subscription fee.

Large Businesses

A comprehensive food manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution will be ideal for large businesses. Functionalities to look for include demand forecasting, compliance management, food traceability, ingredient inventory control, recipe management, and QC testing. Some ERP solutions popular among the food and beverage industry include Microsoft Dynamics GP and BatchMaster ERP.

There are solutions developed with food manufacturers in mind that are built on top of existing ERP solutions - for example, JustFoodERP is built on top of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. A solution built onto a Microsoft product will often have familiar features like Outlook, Excel, or Word. There are also more "generic" ERP solutions that are marketed toward food manufacturers because they are specialized in the field and have implemented their products successfully in that environment. For example, BatchMaster is an ERP designed for process manufacturing that includes functionalities to help with research and development, QC, packaging, formulation, compliance, and traceability.

Common Pain Points

• Constantly changing consumer trends: Diets and health trends constantly change with each passing year. Consumers are more health-conscious now than ever - they want to know where their food is coming from, are focusing on organic produce, and look for healthier alternatives like using spices to color food instead of dyes. There has also been a shift from fat-free foods to natural foods with high levels of saturated fats like natural oils, full-fat dairy products, and grass-fed meat. Keeping up with consumer trends is especially important for food manufacturers. Your food manufacturing software needs to have demand forecasting capabilities, so you can plan production around consumer trends. The software solution can also keep track of where ingredients and products came from, giving consumers more transparency about their food.

• Keeping up with strict regulations: Federal and state regulatory agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are constantly updating regulations. Keeping in compliance with regulations is vital to keep your business up and running, as well as ensure your food products are safe for consumers. Food manufacturing software handles reporting and keeps track of regulations to ensure you meet compliance requirements.

• Labor shortage: According to Food Engineering's article, "Digitizing the food and beverage work environment", food manufacturers see staffing issues as one of their biggest challenges. More baby boomers are retiring and as automation becomes more common, it's becoming more difficult to find workers who are qualified to operate the equipment.

Food & Beverage Industry Trends

• Automation in food manufacturing: Food Engineering's "State of Food Manufacturing Survey" found that 22% of respondents installed an advanced automation system. Food manufacturers are looking into automation software and hardware to cut down on costs as demand increases.

• Focus on health: More consumers are focusing on "mindful eating". According to Research and Markets, organic food & beverages market is projected to grow at CAGR of 14.8% by 2022. Consumers look for product packaging with "free from" claims (like "free from additives or artificial sweeteners") and healthy snack alternatives. Non-dairy and plant-based meat alternatives are also becoming more popular. Consumers are also more concerned with where their food is coming from, as well as sustainability - it is becoming more important for consumers that manufacturing processes are minimizing environmental impact.

• Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law to shift focus to preventing foodborne illnesses instead of just responding to incidents. The FSMA addresses food safety among different points along the global supply chain. Most businesses needed to be compliant with preventative controls for human food by September 2018. However, extensions allowed for qualifying businesses to push some compliance dates to January 2020. For more information on compliance dates, visit fda.gov.