I’m starting a new post series to give some more in-depth reflections on my recent experience in India.
On this trip, I learned how K. Patel Phyto Extractions Pvt. Ltd. had put in place solutions enabling traceability to the farm level for their major products.
Shockingly, the majority of Natural Product supply chains globally lack full traceability. This is a problem.
Documented traceability to the field is foundational for establishing quality and sustainability in production in Natural Products.
Traceability in herbal supplements or foods refers to the ability to trace the movement of food products and their ingredients throughout the supply chain.
It involves documenting every step of the process, and tracking product through the chain of custody from production to consumption, including farming/harvest, processing, packaging, distribution and sale of goods.
In reality, the importance of traceability goes far beyond India—it applies to anywhere that natural products are from and where ever they are going.
The chain of custody can have many ‘change of hands’, and many things (bad things) can happen in between these ‘change of hands’. So, to be able to trace it back to the ‘broken link’ or where things went wrong is essential.
Here are several key points of importance for traceability:
Food/Supplement Safety- It is possible with traceability to identify the source of contamination or problems in processing/production. Although maybe shocking, many times this traceability is lacking or incomplete.
Quality Control- With traceability, it is possible to also monitor quality at each step of the chain, and isolate or correct if there are deviations in quality standards.
Sustainability- When actors up the supply chain don’t care where raw materials come from, it is hard to justify or ensure sustainable or social attributes in production. In fact, it is unlikely.
Supply Chain Management- The visibility of the steps along the supply chain enables greater potential for good management, overall supply chain performance, and reducing the risk of under or over supply.
Regulatory Compliance- In some countries, traceability is a requirement, at least for foods. So compliance is essential to meeting regulations and maintaining the reputation of the industry.
Market Differentiation/ Consumer Confidence- Herbal supplements have long had a reputation problem and much of this can be improved if traceability were put in place. Traceability provides transparency and consumers like knowing where their products come from; in fact, some consumers feel it is an important factor in their purchasing decisions and trusting brands.
To learn more about Indian botanical deep dives, visit www.phytoextractskp.com
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