Supermarket and restaurant chains such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and McDonalds are demanding significantly increased levels of supply chain traceability from their suppliers of food products. Compliance with these requirements requires food processors to either hire expensive people to perform the required record keeping manually or invest in cost saving technology to automate the required data collection and submission processes.

BellHawk Systems announces the availability of a new white paper, "Cost Saving Technology to assist Food Processors Comply with Traceability Mandates from their Customers", which addresses these issues. To download this white paper, please visit www.BellHawk.com.

These mandates require that food processors track what ingredients and packaging go into their products such that they can rapidly trace back to a source of contamination and trace forward to where all the effected products were distributed. These mandates often also require that the food processors appropriately label their products according to GS1 standards and send ASNs (Advanced Shipment Notices) to the distribution centers and third party logistics organizations that receive their products.

"In order to get a contract from Wal-Mart, one of our clients was faced with hiring two additional people at a cost of over $6,000 per month to do the required record keeping. Instead they chose to go with a BellHawk barcode tracking system at a cost of under $1,000 per month" said Dr. Peter Green, president of BellHawk Systems.

This white paper provides an overview of the compliance requirements and how they relate to FDA regulations. It then describes how technology, such as that provided by BellHawk Systems, can enable food processors can meet the traceability requirements of supermarket and restaurant chains without hiring additional staff to do the required record keeping.

BellHawk Systems Corporation provides work-in-process and inventory tracking and materials traceability systems for mid-sized manufacturers, food and pharmaceutical processors, and other industrial organizations throughout the USA.