Westminster, CO -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/08/2013 -- Food Chemical News recently featured TraceGains’ webinar about how food manufacturers can be prepared for the FSMA’s Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP). The article authored by Amber Healy reported, “The need to verify supplier controls as part of the rules implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is so important that FDA is likely to require U.S. companies to adopt the same supplier verification controls as will be mandated of foreign food companies.”

Marc Sanchez, founder and senior counsel with Contract In-House Counsel and Consultants, LLC, a law firm based in Atlanta, co-presented the webinar. Sanchez commented that the components of FSVP and the third-party certification rule include the two options the agency is considering when hazards must be addressed: Either by focusing on annual on-site audits, in which a foreign supplier must identify hazards likely to occur with the product being shipped into the United States; or by instead choosing among different ways to verify that the hazards have been addressed.

Sanchez noted that he believes the FDA prefers electronic recordkeeping systems, as all documents linked with imported products and any steps taken to address all possible hazards must be available upon request. FDA probably won’t want to wait for an importer to dig up a paper document during an on-site audit, and the agency wants as much information as possible when conducting port-of-entry re-inspections, he said. The best way to accomplish those goals and not slow the processing of imported goods is to have all documentation available electronically.

About TraceGains, Inc.
TraceGains, Inc. (http://www.tracegains.com), founded in 1998, is for quality, purchasing, product development, and other departments who are burdened with manually managing suppliers and documents. TraceGains delivers full service supplier, compliance, and regulatory document management solutions. Unlike manual, ERP, or traditional document systems, TraceGains extracts data from documents and automatically takes action.

TraceGains is proven to empower people to quickly solve problems, speed audits, and simplify continuous product improvement. From C-level executives to quality and strategic sourcing departments this supplier document management solution simultaneously reduces costs while improving quality – automatically. Food & beverage makers, restaurant chains, nutraceutical manufacturers, and any company challenged with raw material or ingredient variability can benefit from TraceGains’ supplier compliance and supplier impact solutions.

Companies quickly identify how individual suppliers and raw materials affect product outcomes such as customer satisfaction, profitability, yield, and quality. Suppliers are continuously evaluated and rank-ordered on new business-critical KPIs which go way beyond the traditional measures of cost and on-time delivery.

Actionable intelligence is quickly leveraged for supply chain and ingredient optimization. By automatically reducing ingredient variability, finished goods are more easily and cost-effectively produced, while the cost of poor quality is significantly reduced. Charge-backs and stock-outs are kept to a minimum; purchasing and negotiating power with suppliers is increased. Follow TraceGains on Twitter at @tracegains.

TraceGains, Inc.
http://www.tracegains.com
Jennifer Brusco
Marketing Strategist
pr@tracegains.com
720-465-9400