SUPPLY CHAINPROVIDING
IN THE FOOD

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SUPPLY CHAIN

TRANSPARENCY
SUPPLY CHAIN
Food safety is a major priority for supermarkets, where stringent processesand checks are required to ensure all standards are achieved – fromsourcing to production and distribution. Daniel Moore talks toHans-Dieter Philipowski, Founder and President of ENFIT – International
Association Supply Chain Safety, Germany, who discusses the association’s‘bulkvision’ blockchain initiative, and how this programme is being used toimprove the transparency and traceability of products on a global scaleQUALITY.ORG | 47

SUPPLY CHAINProduct recalls have been
the bane of supermarkets for a longtime, which, more often than not,cause damage to a brand’s reputation,
consumer confidence and incur further
costs for business. One of the mostserious cases for this was the horsemeat scandal – described by someas the biggest food fraud of the 21stcentury. The scandal made national
headlines in 2013 after tests wereconducted by the Food Safety Authorityof Ireland (FSAI) on some supermarket
frozen food samples in November 2012.
From the FSAI’s findings, one-third ofbeef samples contained horse DNA and85 per cent had traces of pig in them.
And with the Irish and UK supermarket
supply chains being closely integrated,
the FSAI warned the UK’s FoodStandards Agency (FSA) of its discovery,in an attempt to prevent further
contaminants from entering food storesin England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As the investigation continued,
Silvercrest Foods (Ireland), Dalepak(Yorkshire) and Liffey Meats (Ireland),were identified as three factories andsources of beef products that had been
contaminated or adulterated, according
to The Guardian’s report: Horsemeat
scandal: the essential guide. BothSilvercrest and Dalepak are subsidiariesof the ABP Food Group – one of thelargest beef processors in Europe –which pointed the finger at its suppliersin Poland for horse meat entering
the supply chain. However, the Polishgovernment took immediate action, by“checking its horse slaughterhouses andfound no irregularities in labelling”, The
Guardian report notes.
The lack of transparency andcommunication between suppliersconsequently led to health and safety
risks across all ends of the supply chain,leaving long- and short-term damages
to both customer and brand loyalty.
While there were many lessons to belearned from this scenario, productrecalls are still an ongoing and costly

48 | QUALITY WORLD | SPRING 2021

issue for many supermarket chains incurrent times.
To improve the traceability of raw
materials and produce from end-to-end,
ENFIT – an international association,
specialising in the standardisationof food safety and compliance – hasdeveloped ‘bulkvision’, a global
container identification system designedfor tracing foodstuffs and allergens incompany supply chains. Hans-Dieter
Philipowski, founder of ENFIT, andone of the software developers for theassociation’s bulkvision global container
identification system, talks to Quality
World about how bulkvision is being
used to spearhead quality, traceability
and the transportation of products –and hopefully make product recalls athing of the past.

Quality World: What is ENFIT’s main
purpose and objectives?
Hans-Dieter Philipowski: ENFIT is a notfor-profit association in Germany, whose
main goal is to ensure food safety andcompliance are adhered to globally.
The association does this by developinginternational standards, which includes
ENFIT HQF (High Quality Food/Feed)– Certification of cleaning stations;
the ECC-ENFIT Cleaning Certificate®;
certified transport hygiene and certified
ENFIT-DIN 10502-1 container inspection.
These standards aim to increase
security, safety and transparency inthe supply chain worldwide, and are
based on Regulation (EC) 178/2002,
which lay down the general principles
and requirements of food law, theCodex Alimentarius (UN) – “Food safety
standards and HACCP hazard analysis”
and others.

Above: ENFIT Founder and President Hans-Dieter
Philipowski is hoping that bulkvision and ENFIT’slatest guidelines will support global food safety.
Below: The Global Identification Numberfor transport containers is a key componentof bulkvision.

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We work closely with many
companies, such as GMP+ International,
a company based in the Netherlands
that has developed the worldwide
standard for Feed Safety: GMP+ FSA(Feed Safety Assurance) certification.
The company also cooperates with DNV(formerly DNV GL), who act as a thirdparty certification body on behalf ofENFIT, by auditing businesses to ENFIT’s
standards. At present, the associationhas 118 members and counting!

iStock.com/Jevtic; Naumoid; Benedek

QW: What sectors/industries belong
to ENFIT’s membership?
HP: ENFIT’s membership comprises offood producers, logistics companies,
cleaning stations, plant building
companies, consulting businesses
among others. International standards
are developed by our members in
different working groups, which arethen published worldwide for quality
managers and those who deal withfood safety on a regular basis. Above
all, ENFIT’s standards are voluntaryand help to protect the health ofconsumers, the manufacturing industry
and retailers from costly product recalls.
QW: Could you tell us more about thebulkvision blockchain initiative andwhat it entails?
HP: ENFIT’s bulkvision is a blockchain
solution that has been developed
to ensure full traceability for all
stakeholders – from raw material andingredient suppliers (eg, farms, mining/oil production) to manufacturers,logistic companies (eg, primary andsecondary production), cleaning
stations and transport workers/drivers.
To do this, the blockchain productenables each company or individual

within the supply chain to checkthe transportation routes/locationsof each transport units (eg, pallets,intermediate bulk containers and silos)
from the latter’s global identification
number (GID).
To begin, users must download
the bulkvision app on their tablet
or smartphone device, and log in to
their IT system via Saas (Software as aService). After downloading the app andcompleting the registration process,individuals or companies can thenaccess, add or update any important
information, such as their personal
details and the GID on the bulkvisionlabels, which are located on eachtransport/container unit.
Data is electronically documented
in real-time, allowing organisations,individuals and other stakeholders
to track and trace each container, byaccessing the documentation and every
process step that has been undertaken
thus far. The process steps are shownin a list format, where viewers can see
who performed the job, where it took
place, the date the task was completed,or is set to be completed, and to which
standard(s).

QW: How does bulkvision tie in with
ENFIT’s international and European
standards?
HP: For the first time, the bulkvision
software fully meets the requirementsof the European Regulation (EC)
178/2002 (Regulation laying down thegeneral principles and requirementsof food law), which also includes therequirements for the tracing of raw
materials and food. Up until now, it
was only possible to carry out tracing
using delivery documents and productspecifications.
What wasn’t previously possible was
the tracking of a product’s physicalpath, especially when the product istransported (unpacked) in transportunits and is therefore exposed to otherunknown influences (cleanliness andsuitability for foodstuffs of thetransport unit).
QW: Why was it important to bringbulkvision to the market?
HP: Often, incorrect or inadequate
information about the cleaning
procedure of a transport container
is given, or it is not checked whether

the cleaning was successful or not.
Logisticians also have different interests
compared to producers where they’realways looking to reduce costs. In
practice, it is only possible to reduce
costs by curtailing cleaning costs,
which, of course, comes at theexpense of quality.
This is the field of tension in which
the food and feed industry finds itself.
On the one hand, transport should
be as cheap as possible, and on theother, the industry needs security andtransparency, which is why it was vitalto develop and bring bulkvision to theforefront.
Another reason for its inception wasafter I discovered a lack of transparency
and security in the supply chain. From
my research, I found that the food andfeed sector lacks concrete knowledgeof how logistics works and has noreal control over defining specific andcontrollable requirements. However,
we anticipate that this will change
dramatically with ENFIT’s new guideline:‘Food Safety in the supply chain –transport of unpacked raw materials
and food in transport containers’.

QW: What are some of main
advantages of using bulkvision?
HP: Through the latest offering andGID, producers are able to save
information about a product, including
its details, allergens and GMOs
[genetically modified organisms], in thecloud when it is loaded. The recipient(eg, a processing producer) can thencheck and verify this information.
The same also works for the cleaningof transport containers, where acleaning station records its data

“In practice, itis only possible
to reduce costsby curtailingcleaning costs,
which, ofcourse, comesat the expenseof quality”
QUALITY.ORG | 49

SUPPLY CHAIN

TRACK AND TRACE ACROSS THE ENTIRE SUPPLY CHAIN

GEO LOCATION

TRANSPORTPRODUCER- A

TRANSPORTPRODUCER-B

on the ENFIT cleaning programme,
as well as their single process steps.
Some of those procedures include themain wash, spilling, drying, cleaningvalidation and verification, plus detailed
information about the time duration,
temperature and concentration of thecleaning agents.
The ENFIT cleaning programme,
together with the ECC-ENFIT CleaningCertificate® – which is uploaded
to the cloud, and states whether
the cleaning station is certified andqualified according to the ENFIT HQFstandard – provides the next loader
with all the information he/she needs
without manipulation, following theaforementioned procedures thathave been undertaken across thesupply chain.

QW: What steps are involved forbusinesses to qualify and receive theECC-ENFIT Cleaning Certificate®?
HP: This certificate can only be issued tocleaning stations that have successfullycompleted the ENFIT HQF certification.
The ENFIT HQF certification is divided
into the following three areas:
Questionnaire/checklist (A), Inspectionof cleaning technology (B), and Levelof training of the cleaning staff andchecking of the cleaning results (C).
The ECC-ENFIT Cleaning Certificate®
is provided with an authenticity code

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LOADING

TRANSPORTVERIFY SEALSDOCUMENTS

UNLOADING

via blockchain, which can be verified
by the next loader using the bulkvision
software. Tampering with the cleaningcertificate is therefore impossible,
due to the verification certification
processes that we have put in place.

QW: How does bulkvision ensuredata is protected and free frommanipulation?
HP: Logistic companies are very strict
about the sensitive information they
put out because there are so manydifferent stakeholders and evencompetitors involved in the supply“The food andfeed sector
lacks concreteknowledge of
how logistics
works and has
no real control
over defining
specific andcontrollablerequirements”

ADD SAFETY SEALSDOCUMENTS

chain. Through bulkvision, everybody
in the chain only gets access to theinformation that is vital to them. For
example, in the production of milk
chocolate, an individual might only
have the details about where the milk
powder was transported and when, but
he/she cannot see who the loader is andin which place the product was loaded.
The only one who can see all theinformation is the logistics company
that carries out the transport from one
to the other and is the owner of theshipping container.
The decisive factor about bulkvision
is that the sensitive data, for example,
about the preliminary products, isexchanged directly between theproducers. Only then can the producers
be sure that the data has beentruthfully provided.
To avoid data manipulation, a digital
fingerprint identification function isembedded into the system so thatusers can see whether any blocks
of information have been added orremoved from the database. This willassist both businesses and individuals
with ensuring all the data entering thesystem/supply chain is “trustworthy andstandardised” from end to end.
In the event of a recall, the logistician
can make the system accessible tocustomers (producers) or the control
authorities, where all the individual

SUPPLY CHAIN

steps are seamlessly tracked with a timestamp, geographic location, who did
what according to which standard, anduncover the cause of contamination.
The servers on which the data is stored
in the cloud are operated according toEuropean data protection regulations
and hosted by ENFIT. Many stakeholders
are afraid of storing their data on
private platforms and therefore, as anassociation, ENFIT decided to host thedata ourselves. Our association does
not belong to any individual, and is not
a provisional company that can be soldto anyone at some point – it belongs toits members. This gives the company’sstakeholders maximum security.

QW: How does ENFIT deal with
Covid-19 concerns and ensure there
are measures in place for this throughbulkvision?
HP: bulkvision contains an additional
module called ‘Cleaners Identification’which can be used to identify who has
carried out cleaning for each container.
If an individual becomes sick andcontracts Covid, transport containersthat have been cleaned by this specificperson can then be withdrawn before
the next load.
Another function is the digital check-in
and check-out at production facilities.
This means that a driver no longer has
to stand in line to fill out a check-in
questionnaire and leave his ID at thegate. With the bulkvision Driver app,the driver can now check in and out
digitally – helping to reinforce andmaintain social distancing.
QW: Are there any further updates
or functionalities being introduced
for bulkvision this year?
HP: Some of our new updates will
include the bulkvision Supply Chain
app, which allows drivers to invite therecipient into the bulkvision systemafter loading, so that the remaining
travel time and the estimated timeof arrival (ETA) are visible to therecipient(s). This means that anunloader – akin to a loader or cleaning
station – can be informed directly about
all changes in the arrival time without
having to make long phone calls oremails. Additionally, producers andcleaning stations can use the bulkvision
Supply Chain app to optimise theirown processes.

QW: What are some of themain challenges that ENFIT has
encountered and how does it plan
to overcome them?
HP: A primary concern for ENFIT isthe cross-contamination of raw
materials, where viruses, bacteria,mould, allergens and salmonella
have appeared as a result of transportcontainers that have not beencleaned or sanitised properly.
To overcome this obstacle, 58
representatives from logisticorganisations, cleaning stations andcertification companies came together
to help create ENFIT’s new guideline:‘Food Safety in the Supply Chain –Transport of unpacked raw materials
and food in transport containers’. The
guideline documents valuable andpractical solutions to reduce risk in thetransportation of raw foods/materials,
which are easy to implement across allends of the supply chain.
The guideline has been sent to manybusinesses (upon request) in Brazil,
Egypt, Malaysia, UK, India and manyother countries around the world. The
recipients that have already reviewed
it have provided us with positive
feedback, explaining that the document
is easy to follow, due to the number ofillustrations and practical examples that
help to highlight critical areas in thetransportation of unpackaged food andraw materials.

suitable for transporting food (regularENFIT-DIN 10502-1 inspection) and are
regularly cleaned and disinfected incleaning stations – certified to the ENFIT
HQF standard.
The association has and continues toadvise its members to follow ENFIT’s
HQF Standard for cleaning stations,its cleaning programmes, and carryingout regular validation and verification
to stop viruses and, more importantly,
costly recalls from occurring as a resultof bad hygiene.
Track and trace is important for thesupermarket and producer chains,particularly in this current decade.
Therefore, we are hoping thatbulkvision, together with our latest
guidelines, will reiterate our message
about the importance of food safety to
the rest of the world.

QW: Looking ahead, what otherprojects does ENFIT have plannedfor this year?
HP: In February, we established a newworking group that has been tasked
with developing ENFIT’s new ‘Cleaningand Disinfection of Refrigerated andBox Vehicles and Overseas Containers
guideline’. The association is aiming tohave this ready for industry in Q4 2021.
In Covid times, this is an important
topic that we want to answer astransparently and professionally as
possible, akin to what we’ve done
already in the area of unpacked goods.
QW: What advice would you give toyour members and other businesses
who are trying to stop costly productrecalls from happening?
HP: We recommend for all those
involved in the supply chain to only use
transport containers that are verifiably

For further information
on ENFIT’s bulkvision
programme, go to:enfit.eu

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