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Imagine a quality control lab losing a sample that tested positive for dangerous bacteria and a batch of contaminated products being released to the market. That’s exactly what happened with Ferrero in 2022. Batches of chocolate contaminated with Salmonella passed unnoticed, causing at least 450 sick with severe symptoms, primarily children.
Shifting to Switzerland, where 1LIMS is headquartered, we witnessed a rise in public warnings and product recalls in 2023 compared to the year before. The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) published 17 public warnings and 73 recalls for food compared to 9 public warnings and 39 recalls in 2022. The situation is becoming alarming in all European countries. How can companies avoid mass poisoning risks and ensure their products are safe?
To find the answer, 1LIMS talked to Dr. Lars Fieseler, a professor, lecturer, and Head of the food microbiology research group at Zurich University of Applied Sciences. He shared with us several insights on how food companies can comply with strict regulatory standards and avoid reputation losses.
But before we get into specific recommendations, let’s define what food safety management is and outline the main reasons for frequent product recalls in Europe last year.
Food safety management is a critical aspect of the food industry, ensuring that the food we consume is safe and healthy. A food safety management system (FSMS) is a structured approach designed to identify, evaluate, and control food safety hazards throughout the food supply chain. The primary goal of food safety management is to prevent foodborne illnesses and protect public health. By implementing a robust FSMS, food companies can maintain high standards of safety and quality, thereby fostering consumer trust and confidence in their products. In an industry where safety is paramount, an effective FSMS is indispensable for managing risks and ensuring the integrity of the food supply chain.
Food safety management involves a comprehensive process of identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety hazards to ensure the production and distribution of safe and healthy food products. This systematic approach covers every stage of the food production process, from sourcing raw materials to delivering the final product to consumers. By managing food safety risks effectively, companies can uphold the highest standards of safety and quality, which is essential for maintaining consumer trust and confidence in the food industry. In essence, food safety management is about safeguarding public health by ensuring that all food products are free from harmful contaminants and safe for consumption.
A food safety management system is built on several key elements that work together to ensure food safety. These elements include prerequisite programs (PRPs), hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), and a comprehensive safety management system. Each component plays a vital role in identifying and controlling food safety hazards, thereby ensuring that food products are safe for consumption.
Prerequisite programs (PRPs) form the foundation of a food safety management system. These are the basic conditions and activities necessary to maintain a hygienic environment throughout the food chain. Examples of PRPs include good manufacturing practices (GMPs), good agricultural practices (GAPs), good hygiene practices (GHPs), purchasing management, pest control, and food waste management. PRPs provide the essential infrastructure for a food safety management system, ensuring that all processes are conducted in a safe and hygienic manner. By implementing effective PRPs, food companies can create a solid foundation for ensuring food safety and preventing contamination.
Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to identifying and controlling hazards in the food chain. This method involves identifying potential hazards, evaluating their risks, and implementing controls to prevent or minimize their impact. HACCP is a critical element of a food safety management system, as it helps to ensure that food products are safe for consumption. By focusing on critical control points, HACCP allows food companies to proactively manage food safety risks and prevent contamination. This approach not only enhances food safety but also helps companies comply with regulatory requirements and maintain consumer trust.
In Switzerland alone, product recalls have almost doubled in one year and a similar situation is reported in all EU countries. Why has this problem spread to even the biggest enterprises like Ferrero? There are three main reasons behind this.
As surprising as it sounds, the most significant factor that causes microbial contamination of food and subsequent product recalls is poor hygiene. While many food manufacturers focus on preventing primary contamination, which happens when raw materials are exposed to pathogens, the more significant threat often comes from secondary contamination that occurs during slicing, packaging, or storing products on the production floor. Food companies often overlook critical areas where pathogens can thrive, and as a result, contamination happens, creating poisoning risks.
Listeria monocytogenes, for example, is one of the most frequent bacteria found in food products because of secondary contamination. In 2022, 30 countries reported 2770 confirmed listeriosis cases in the EU/EEA. This pathogen can enter the production facility from the external environment and recontaminate food products after they’ve been thermally processed and preserved. The bacteria can then proliferate within the food, leading to potential infections.
Seeing the threats Listeria monocytogenes pose to consumer health, authorities have published specific regulations that oblige all food facilities to monitor the production environment.
A second major reason for food contamination and product recalls is the inconsistency in quality control procedures across production sites. In the food industry, different facilities follow varying testing methods, inspection frequencies, and safety protocols. This inconsistency increases the chance that some batches of products slip through the cracks, leading to potential safety hazards. Even minor deviations in how QC procedures are applied, such as temperature, sample sizes, or testing equipment calibration, can result in undetected contaminants, spoilage, or other defects.
The problem of differing QC standards becomes especially problematic in large-scale food production, where different plants process the same product. Without standardized protocols and a single source of truth for data across all laboratories, one location might identify and remove faulty products, while another site could release them to the market, leading to contamination risks and costly recalls.
A lack of traceability increases the risk of food contamination by making it harder to track products through the supply chain. Without it, companies struggle to identify the source of contamination, delay recalls, and risk using unsafe ingredients. It also makes controlling cross-contamination during production more difficult, leading to greater food safety hazards.
In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule on food traceability, which mandates businesses to trace the origin of certain food products, such as fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, seafood, cheeses, and deli salads, and provide detailed records to regulators within 24 hours upon request. This regulation, which will take full effect on January 20, 2026, was designed to speed up the identification and removal of potentially contaminated products from the market, ultimately safeguarding consumer health.
Many food producers still rely on outdated manual processes, often leading to incomplete or inaccurate data, making it practically impossible to comply with the FDA's demands. Paper-based documentation and analog solutions like Excel, which worked for data management for years, don't offer the required level of traceability. Instead, laboratories need a new approach to quality control that would automate routine tasks and eliminate the possibility of mistakes.
Effortless data traceability becomes possible with LIMS, a laboratory information management system that consolidates all laboratory data, automates data input, and allows lab employees to focus on high-impact tasks instead of endless paperwork. Let's see how LIMS can change food safety with the example of 1LIMS, an intuitive cloud lab data management system.
1LIMS centralizes all laboratory data on a single digital platform, allowing instant access to any sample and its test results. As a comprehensive food safety management software, 1LIMS, enables companies to automate data capture, storage, and retrieval, making all lab information transparent and traceable. No more digging through files or Excel sheets – everything is one or two clicks away.
Here are the main benefits food companies gain using 1LIMS.
1LIMS can be seamlessly connected to hygiene monitoring systems, allowing food companies to instantly transfer and analyze data from multiple sources, ensuring constant monitoring of the working environment. With this integration, food facilities can track sanitation processes, identify potential risks, and maintain compliance with safety standards.
Traceability is at the core of our solution. In 1LIMS, all actions taken on samples are documented and traceable. Everything is stored within the system, allowing for better process control and quick access to data during compliance audits. All you need to do is input a batch number and the system will show you the entire history of each specific sample. This way, you always know exactly who did what, when, and where, and can have peace of mind during compliance audits.
Food and beverage labs handle a wide variety of samples daily, from raw ingredients to finished products. Managing hundreds of samples and test reports consumes hours of work each day, causing mistakes and delaying releases.
1LIMS makes turnaround 2X faster by providing a centralized platform where you can view critical data for each sample, including order number, responsible lab, creation date, order status, and results. Plus, with unique identification labels for each sample, lab workers can quickly scan and retrieve the analysis data, eliminating the need to go through numerous files.
Companies gain a comprehensive view of the entire laboratory with 1LIMS' customizable dashboards. Laboratory employees can tailor the dashboard to highlight the most critical areas that need their attention, from sample statuses to equipment performance and environmental conditions.
With alerts and visual indicators set up, lab workers can identify and address potential risks before they escalate, ensuring smooth and safe QC processes.
1LIMS supports a wide range of food and beverage testing methods required by EU regulations.
Testing capabilities include:
The 1LIMS team can help with adding the necessary test execution plans and customizing workflows to meet a lab's specific needs.
Now that we know the main capabilities of 1LIMS, let's see what practical value they bring to the food industry.
Let's take a look at two companies that fastened their QC processes with 1LIMS: Zweifel, a Swiss chips manufacturer with a 55% market share, and Micarna Group, a leading meat, poultry, fish, egg, and seafood producer in Switzerland.
The main problem that Zweifel Pomy-Chips AG encountered in their QC processes was lost samples. Before adopting 1LIMS, they used a combination of Excel and paper records to manage data. This approach resulted in frequent problems, as data was scattered across various documents and formats, and lab employees often couldn't find the needed test result, regularly losing important samples.
To change this, Zweifel addressed 1LIMS, and we helped them smoothly implement the system in their lab workflows. Its intuitive design allowed all employees, even those accustomed to traditional methods, to quickly get used to the new system and start using it daily.
If before adopting 1LIMS, it was a challenge to find a sample, now, with a single digital data source, intuitive dashboards, and sample barcodes, it became a matter of seconds:
Micarna, a large food producer in Switzerland, faced another challenge. Their main problem was the overwhelming range of samples, which they couldn't manage with outdated paper-based processes. Their QC lab counted just three technicians who had to process from 100 to 200 samples daily, ensuring the testing of more than 4,500 products across 23 sites in Switzerland.
With such a heavy workload, they couldn't rely on analog solutions anymore, so they reached out to 1LIMS for help. In four months, we implemented 1LIMS at the leading production sites in Bazenheid, Courtepin, and Fribourg. After that, we helped input all the master data and sampling plan and gradually incorporated the system into all 23 locations.
The results were more than worth it – no more chaos and stress sifting through paper during compliance audits. Now, when everything is structured, ordered, and organized within 1LIMS, the laboratory is processing 50% more samples, the audits are fast and stress-free, and per-sample analysis costs are reduced by half.
How can your QC lab achieve such results? Here's the first step companies can take to simplify and fasten their quality control workflows.
To successfully adopt a new system, it's essential to first consider the unique needs of the lab and whether the new solution caters to them.
That's what Frifag Märwil AG, a producer of high-quality poultry meat, decided to do before going digital. The company covers all stages of meat production, from animal feeding to delivery, and guarantees compliance with the highest quality standards, such as ISO 9001 and FSSC22000. Seeking to lower quality assurance costs and reduce workload, they approached 1LIMS for digitalization consulting services.
1LIMS organized the LabCheck workshop to explore how digitalization can decrease the company's quality management expenses. Our experts made an on-site visit to Frifag Märwil's poultry production, evaluating their work processes at each stage, from slaughter to logistics.
Our workshop included three main steps:
We determined that a laboratory employee's overall workload for quality data management is about 32%, translating into CHF 22,400 in annual costs. Adopting 1LIMS and automating workflows would reduce QA data management effort to 10%, saving approximately CHF 15,400 annually.
We developed a strategic roadmap for deploying 1LIMS, and now Frifag Märwil has a clear understanding of the exact benefits digitalization can bring them in the short and long term.
To conclude, let's outline the main recommendations for food facilities on how they can become compliant with safety standards.
Dr. Lars Fieseler shared with us some recommendations on what food companies should do to keep pace with evolving food safety standards and minimize the risk of product recalls:
Overall, ensuring food safety is more complex than ever. However, the utmost attention to hygiene measures and the adoption of modern technology for data management allow food companies to meet the latest standards stress-free and avoid costly product recalls. Investing in the right technology is paramount if you want to protect consumer health and sustain your business growth.
Order our laboratory digitalization consulting services. We provide on-site or remote evaluation of your quality control procedures, helping you find answers to such questions:
Through our LabCHECK workshop, you can make an informed decision before adopting a new digital system in your lab.
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