Industries
Recently, an excessive ethylene oxide level has led to a wave of recalls in the food sector. When this was also the case for the binding agent ‘locust bean gum’, Goodlife Foods immediately pulled out all the stops. Thanks to BESTMIX®, this frozen snack manufacturer could detect in no time the products to be recalled, so it managed to reduce to an absolute minimum the impact of the recalls.
GoodLife Foods is one of the biggest European suppliers of fresh frozen snacks (including egg rolls, frikadelles, and hamburgers). One of its flagships is the popular ‘Bicky Burger’. This company has eight product sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. In total, it employs more than 600 people. Daily, GoodLife Foods produces more than four million snacks, reaching the retail market, food service, and business-to-business partners this way.
What preceded
Last year, some food safety authorities found excessive levels of crop protection residue in several products. The culprit is ethylene oxide, a substance banned in Europe, but still being used elsewhere in the world in order to prevent mold and salmonella. Initially, the recalls mainly focused on sesame products. Subsequently, various spices and the binding agent locust bean gum (E410) followed. This resulted in a large-scale recall of hundreds of nutrients: ice cream, bakery products, snacks…
The challenge
Several Goodlife Foods references contain locust bean gum. “It concerned two product groups: raw materials which we further process ourselves and ready-made sauces which we purchase directly,” according to Quality Systems Officer Joyce Lubbers. “When a manufacturer reported to us the opportunity to recall, we immediately took action.”
The solution
Employing BESTMIX®, Joyce Lubbers could in no time detect the presence of locust bean gum with a (possibly) higher level of ethylene oxide within the production cycles. “The practical filters based on the raw material, end product, and location were of great help. BESTMIX® allowed us to quickly take the right steps.”
The alternative
“Together, our eight production sites use four different ERP packages,” Joyce Lubbers continues. “As far as I know, BESTMIX® is the only formulation software able to integrate in one single overview the information from those four ERP packages and the different locations. If we didn’t have BESTMIX®, locating the products to be recalled, would have taken us much more time (hours and even days) while every second counts to minimize the burden on our supply chain and to reduce the costs.”
The impact of BESTMIX®
Joyce Lubbers discovered BESTMIX® when working for her previous employer. When she started working for Goodlife Foods, she immediately reported the need for a new formulation package. “I especially missed a helicopter view. Several sites applied their formulation methods, which made the retrieval of raw material information too complex and cumbersome. Moreover, the preparation of declarations could be more streamlined.”
Goodlife Foods invited four software suppliers. “We had a list of requirements in mind. At BESTMIX®, we could tick most of the boxes. The benefits manifest themselves in several ways. When we used to supply the same customer from our different factories, the latter always received another declaration layout. Now, we can bundle all the information in one clear declaration. Thanks to BESTMIX®, I can now retrieve with a single mouse click all references with specific raw materials. This can be useful when a customer asks us some questions about halal, for instance. The speed and efficiency with which we have recently deployed our recall, confirm once again that we made the right decision.”