Kezzler talks food safety at GFSI, from potatoes to baby formula

03-Mar-2020 - Last updated on 03-Mar-2020 at 09:48 GMT

“Kezzler’s technology has the ability to change the global food industry forever by making every single product digitally unique and interactive.” Pic: Kezzler

More than six billion global products use Kezzler’s secure, traceable codes to support authentication and transparency. It believes the food industry is responsible for utilizing technology to keep supply chains safe.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Conference in Seattle last week brought together more than 1,000 delegates from 60 countries for a ‘One Connected World. One Safe Food Supply’ themed event.

Norway-headquartered tech company Kezzler spoke about how to further advance food safety through evolving technology on the panel ‘Innovation & Technology - Information Optimisation: leveraging and managing public information.’

Tracebility now a reality

Kezzler’s CEO Christine Akselsen said, “With almost one in ten people in the world falling ill after eating contaminated food every year there is a responsibility for industry to harness digital solutions that can support safety throughout the supply chain.”

The company said its digital solutions support traceability and authentication in CPG items, from sweet potatoes in the US to infant formula in China. In their view, brands need to adapt to bring transparency to the world of food and secure global supply chains.

The Kezzler serialization codes--kezzlercodes--track a product from creation to consumption. The unique digital identity that is printed on each product is managed by a cloud solution, which provides protection against counterfeits using authentication.

It also better manages and mitigates recall requirements and supports brands to provide consumers with personalized content. The system is blockchain compatible and Kezzler said it’s currently handling more than two million unique consumer interactions per day for a single client.

“In the past traceability has been considered desirable but difficult to achieve. This is no longer the case,” Akselsen said.

“Kezzler’s technology has the ability to change the global food industry forever by making every single product digitally unique and interactive.”

Tracking farm to formula

Akselsen spoke about Kezzler’s work with FrieslandCampina’s infant formula brand, FRISO. Kezzler’s tech is able to track information on the formula from farms in The Netherlands to consumers in China.

“With FRISO, our technology has empowered parents to make informed purchasing decisions. The grass-to-glass traceability made available to consumers when scanning the product allays any concerns parents might have as to where their product has come from and its authenticity,” she said.

Integrating Kezzler tech into existing products is designed to be effortless, and cause as little change as possible to brands’ operational procedures.

“With a CPG company we often start with one SKU manufactured at one facility, then once this is completed it becomes very easy to roll out the solution globally. In the case of FRISO, we began in Hong Kong but in a short time the solution had been rolled out globally,” Akselsen said.

Kezzler thinks it’s only a matter of time until this level of transparency is expected for all consumer products globally, led by the example of companies like FrieslandCampina.

FrieslandCampina’s senior project manager Hans Wessels said, “Ensuring our consumers can have full confidence in FrieslandCampina brands is paramount. This is why we have adopted Kezzler’s serialization technology to deliver supply chain visibility for our infant formula brands, as well as providing a way for stakeholders throughout the supply chain to validate their products in real-time.”