Traceability in the Dairy Industry in Europe

The role of food traceability systems is critical because of required high standards for foods and beverages. With relation to the industry of cheeses, traceability tools have to take into account the existing regulatory framework, and the European Union has provided a significant contribution in this ambit concerning cheese products and dedicated food-contact materials for cheeses. The aim of this chapter is to provide a detailed overview of the current European regulatory framework. The approach to the European food legislation, regulated on multiple levels, seems to be very intricate because of the enormous amount of technical and very detailed provisions. This legislation can be analysed on two different levels. The first level concerns powers for public authorities and consequently the power of implementing and enforcing food law (information and risk communication, scientific risk assessment and emergency measures). The second one regards the requirements for food business operators. These requirements can be grouped into three different sub-categories: legislation concerning the product, legislation concerning the process (including withdrawal and recall procedures) and legislation with relation to the presentation of food products (labelling, publicity, risk communication). The last point is essential for the final consumer. The above-mentioned requirements, listed in the Regulation (CE) No 178/2002 (the backbone of the whole food security discipline in the EU), are critically discussed with concern to different topics: protection of consumers’ health, alerts at the European level, labelling requirements and traceability.

The liberalisation of the European Union food market and the globalisation have increased the need of safety guarantees in the area of food safety. Consumers demand enhanced safety and hygiene assurance. Transparency, product quality and safety along the dairy supply chain could be reached by the application of specific standards and proper mechanisms such as traceability tools. The role of traceability is critical in supply chain management. With peculiar reference to the milk and dairy sector, Europe has a leading position in this area. The essential segments of each dairy supply chain can be easily identified, including dairy farms, dairy processing companies, wholesalers, retailers and the final consumers. With relation to the traceability of cheese products only, a joint work of the interested food business operators is implicit. In some situations, the system may have a ‘chain leader’ coordinating the whole food supply chain; alternatively, different food business operators may cooperate without a leading subject. It has to be noted that information technology-assisted software may be helpful in the management of similar systems. In addition, the authenticity of raw materials may be assessed at the analytical level. Finally, the role of some national institutions should be considered when speaking of traceability: the Italian example (mandatory declaration of milk origin on cheese labels) is discussed.

At present, the problem of traceability in food industries is one of the most important and emerging factors with a notable influence on the management of food business operators. In fact, the mandatory requisite of traceability, both from raw materials to final products and vice versa, is mentioned in many legislative documents and in the most important voluntary food certification standards. The situation is continually evolving, and the most part of food and beverage sectors are trying to find different solutions. Traceability is one of the main pillars of the modern food safety strategy worldwide. The sector of milk and dairy productions can show an extremely variegated situation because of the many possible intermediate and final products associated with the original raw material: milk. The flow of input information has to be analysed, raw material per raw material; the same thing is true when speaking of output information concerning final products and by-products (sometimes defined ‘off-line’ products). One or more processing food business operators can be involved in the global process; the role of water has to be considered. The aim of this chapter is to describe in practice the complex operations—named jointly ‘traceability’—related to a peculiar sub-area of milk-based products: cow’s milk cheese by means of a software product—the ExTra tool—with reference to two simulated productions: Mozzarella cheese and a general semi-hard cheese.

At present, the problem of traceability in food industries is one of the most important and emerging factors with notable influence on the management of food business operators. The sector of cheese products is an interesting example. However, there are ‘cheeses’—obtained from milk, salt, rennet and some minor additive(s)—on the one hand, and different products: ‘processed cheeses’ and ‘analogue cheeses’ or ‘imitation cheeses’ on the other side. The world of processed or melted cheeses is different enough from the sector of cheeses made from milk; however, new emergencies concerning food frauds and authenticity issues, or the undeclared presence of allowed additives with some specific food allergenic reaction, are observed in this ambit. In addition, the declared claims concerning ‘low sugar contents’, ‘low cholesterol amounts’, other health statements, etc., should be discussed in this area. The transformation of raw materials towards the final product(s) determines a complication in the traceability if compared to cheese obtained from milk (or curd). Moreover, durable products such as processed and analogue cheeses can remain on the market for extended period times, thus enhancing the temporal need of traceability data. The flow of input information has to be analysed, raw material per raw material; the same thing is true when speaking of output information concerning final products and by-products (sometimes defined as ‘off-line’ products). Generally, more than one processing food business operators are involved in the global process. The aim of this chapter is to describe in practice the complex operations—named jointly ‘traceability’—in this ambit by means of a software product—the ExTra tool—with reference to two simulated productions: a processed cheese and a general imitation cheese.

Food additives are substances deliberately added to food to fulfil specific technological functions. The use of additives in the modern food industries cannot be avoided in many ambits. Food production on a large scale is very different from the manufacturing on a small scale; the urgency of new industrial food production techniques has necessarily increased with the aim of developing many different kinds of food additives. Most of these additives solve a fundamental technological function, which actually improves product quality; others additives, as dyes and coating agents, are used to make the product more attractive for consumers. Considering their importance, systems of pre-market approval requirements have been introduced in Europe for synthetic substances added to foods. As a result, the European Union has set up a reliable food safety system that helps to ensure consumer protection against any possible food hazard such as the ones caused by side effects of preservatives and flavourings. For this reason, all food additives currently used in Europe have been examined for safety evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority, and before by its predecessor institution, the Scientific Committee on Food. The general system created by the European Union is based on the so-called positive lists. Only food additives included in the official positive list are allowed in foods and food formulations under specific conditions. With reference to the sector of cheese productions, peculiar additives—including microbial agents—have to be considered. The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the currently allowed additives in the ambit of cheese productions, according to European Union legislation.

Over the past decade, the increasingly consumer demand for low-fat food products influenced by many health-related concerns has led modern food industry to research healthier products in order to reduce the amount of fat, salt and additives. Dairy manufacturers have answered with the development of cheese alternatives. Even not being harmful to health, these alternatives may give a lower nutritional benefit due to the reduction of calcium content and may contain different artificial flavours and colours. Therefore, many strategies have been proposed to improve low-fat cheeses such as making process modification and the use of fat replacers with the main objective of obtaining a reduction in the caloric value. At present, there are on the market both cheese substitutes and imitation products which can now unanimously be defined as products which clearly imitate cheese produced from milk by means of the partial or total substitution of milk components with non-dairy ingredients. The main advantages of these cheese types are related to the price and shelf-life values. Since many inexpensive ingredients can be used in its production, it is typically more interesting to manufacture these foods than traditional cheeses; the above-mentioned cheapness makes them attractive to food business operators. The European Legislator is aware that some products obtained from mixtures of dairy ingredients and some fats or protein matters from other sources are marketed as ‘cheese analogues’. Consequently, he has restricted the use of the designation ‘cheese’ to products which are manufactured from milk and from milk products and where milk ingredients are not replaced by a constituent not occurring naturally in milk. For this and other reasons, the traceability of similar foods is critical at present. The aim of this chapter is to give a description of these products from the European regulatory viewpoint.

This chapter is explicitly dedicated to a particular and multi-faceted category of entering raw materials (input data) for the production of processed cheeses and cheese imitation products. The entering information in a traceability (tracking and tracing) system for these products has to concern many possible ingredients, including food additives. Different chemicals may be added with various functions when speaking of processed cheeses, but the production of analogue cheeses appears more interesting. In general, the classification of food additives takes into account the particular function(s) these compounds are expected to perform during the production and in the subsequent steps. Moreover, the proposed use of these compounds has to be declared on food labels. At the same time, traceability has to take these information—specific for each possible additive—into account. The aim of this chapter is to describe the complex operations—named joint ‘traceability’—with exclusive concern to ‘minor’ ingredients (food additives) by means of a software product: the ExTra tool. Discussed simulated products are a processed cheese and a general imitation cheese.

The globalisation in the food industries contest requires more and more guarantees in order to protect consumers. Under these conditions, a good food traceability system can help to compensate for this loss of control minimising the production and the distribution of unsafe quality products as well as improving consumer confidence. The management of food product traceability depends on different factors. One of these factors is the consumer demand, which reflects the public need of food safety and security. In order to comply with this need, consumers must be reassured not only with concern to the origin of products and their traceability, but also on contaminants, which can be added to foodstuff. Because of the nature of contaminants and of the predictable negative impact on food quality and safety, the European Union has introduced a number of provisions to reduce these phenomena. For these reasons, this chapter is particularly focused on food-contact materials and the need of a mandatory traceability related to these materials. This analysis is performed from the European viewpoint, taking into account the existing regulatory and related provisions. Anyway, traceability of food contact materials is mandatory exactly as the same traceability for food products—including cheeses—and related ingredients. Because of the synergic food/packaging interaction in the ‘packaged food’ item, the same requirement is needed when speaking of edible ingredients and food contact materials at the same time.

Every kind of foodstuff requires a unique packaging model. This statement is especially true when speaking of peculiar products such as milk, dairy products and cheese. There are some additional needs to take into consideration (i.e. manufacture, transport, ‘shelf appeal’, branding and packaging functionality) in addition to the traditional ones. Moreover, the type of packaging material(s) for dairy products become of primary importance because of its impact on quality, safety, odour control, toughness and flexibility. These reasons explain the continuous development of the packaging market towards new technologic processes, new materials and innovative solutions. Food packaging may be designed to enhance the product image, to differentiate the product in comparison with other competitors, adding variety for consumers, and finally offering a great potential to build the brand awareness and differentiation. However, these changes have led many innovations within the entire supply chain as well as in product development, packaging, branding and sales channels. Retailers respond to this new market demand in the milk and dairy sector by moving packaging innovation (e.g., portion-controlled, snack-sized, re-sealable and fit-for-purpose models). The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the most common food packaging solutions related to cheese products, taking into account different needs, production and preservation technologies and sustainability.

The world of food-contact materials and objects is continually evolving at present because of different exigencies that could be defined ‘needs’, including extended shelf-life values, marketing targets and other minor factors. The role of these materials as accessory ingredients of a specific food product is no longer accepted, and the European Union has recently issued the (EC) Regulation No 1935/2004 in this ambit with concern to specific traceability systems and procedures for food-contact materials. As a result, the problem of traceability in food industries concerns food ingredients, additives and other substances that should be defined ‘edible’ and food packaging materials on the other hand. This innovation has an important impact on the management of food business operators, including non-food industries producing articles for the food industry. Traceability is one of the main pillars of the modern food safety strategy worldwide. In addition, because of the complexity of different food sectors and sub-sectors, foods and beverages cannot be managed in the same way when speaking of processed meats, eggs, seafood products, cheeses and so on. As a result, the matter is new enough and should be discussed critically, and the ambit of cheese products is interesting. With concern to packaged cheese products, the aim of this chapter is to describe in practice the complex operations—named jointly ‘traceability’—related to food-contact materials used. Three case studies are evaluated in this ambit, with concern to different cheeses and food packaging materials. The flow of input and output information is critically discussed and analysed when speaking of information complexity.