DOCTORAL WORKSHOP PHD ON THE GO «Study and Analysis of the olive oil process: Quality and Traceability»
RESEARCH FIELD: The Food Sector is more and more competitive and the food companies have to qualify and differentiate their products; Consumers are mainly oriented to the consumption of healthy food because of their benefits for health; Healthy food can prevent the onset of different pathologies, assuring to the customer hygiene, Safety and quality; This sector allows to search and develop innovative food (SPREAD BIO OIL PROJECT); FOOD SECTOR HEALTHY FOOD OLIVE OIL PROCESS
Different Departments of University of Calabria are involved: SPREAD BIO OIL: Biology Modeling Mechanical Engineering Management Engineering Chemical Engineering A series of collaborations will be established with: researchers of biology, experts on food technologies, researchers in chemical and computer scientists.
MAIN OBJECTIVES: Analysis of methods to standardize the process parameters for quality; Research and development of innovative methods to implement internal and supply chain traceability systems; Definition and development of a prototypal system for traceability of the product; WHY? To facilitate the integration of information in the Supply Chain; To ensure compliance with the standards of quality and safety; To increase the consumers fidelity; To facilitate the identification of potential risks in a small time window;
Tracking and Tracing: general definitions The EU General Food Law Regulation defines traceability as the ability to trace and follow food, feed and ingredients through the production, processing and distribution stages. Regulation (EC) 178/2002 Traceability = Tracking + Tracing Tracking is the ability to follow the path of specified unit and/or lot of trade items downstream through the supply chain as it moves between trading partner. Tracing is the ability to identify the origin of a particular unit located within the supply chain by reference to records held upstream in the supply chain.
Tracking and Tracing: Potential Benefits: Barriers to entry: Source: An Appetite for Traceability: results from OnTraceability Conference 2011 Need for high investments; The reluctance of companies to change; The lack of adequately trained staff; Limitations of the current operating and management systems;
Project Time Line First year Second year Third year
The development of an effective food traceability system is not possible without a through understanding of the progress of the work carried out in the same area of research. Source: Mirabelli G., Pizzuti T., Gomez-Gonzalez F, Sanz-Bobi M. (2012), Food Traceability Models: an overview of the state of the art
Regulamentation, recommendation and guides of Governments: As a result of the increased interest in the issue of quality and food safety, many government agencies have required the introduction of mandatory traceability and it facilitated the introduction of voluntary traceability. UNI 10939:2001 Bioterrorism Act UNI 11020:2002 Food Standard Code Food Protection Plan ISO 22005:2008 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Year Agri-Tracabilité Québec Regulation 178/2002 Beef Traceability law Agric. Policy Framework 2nd. Version Food Trac. Trac,Handbook Food Safety Law Food Safety Mod. Act Traceability as a mechanism for food safety (HACCP) Traceability as a tool for differentiation (PDO, PGI, Organic Production) Mechanisms to implement a traceability system (Japanese Traceability Manual, Canadian Traceability of Beef) Source: Mirabelli G., Pizzuti T., Gomez-Gonzalez F, Sanz-Bobi M., (2012), Food Traceability Models: an overview of the state of the art
Scientific literature: The increased interest from the scientific world in search of traceability is the result of a long series of developments aimed at improving food quality and safety management. (U. Opara,2003) Works oriented to the definition and development of innovative traceability information systems, including process modeling and data modelling. Works oriented to the definition of some mathematical models developed for containing risk transmission problems. Works devoted to the study of such traceability semantic model, developed in order to reuse the information resources involved in the process of tracing and provide a standard for information encoding. An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization (Gruber, T.R. 1993)
Criticalities from the regulatory point of view: A series of additional information should be collected in each step of the supply chain to ensure the availability of the data; Different approaches have been used by different countries; The absence of a global standard for encoding and decoding of information hinders communication between the different actors; Criticalities from scientific literature point of view: Unable to maintain the connection between the flow of information and the flow of products; From a point of view of management efficiency: Not exist any work in which the flow of the process is fully integrated with the data model; From an ontological point of view: There is no ontology that connects food with the elements and the actors;
New traceability systems can be developed by integrating the advantages of the systems proposed in the literature to overcome their deficiencies. The ontologies can be used to facilitate the integration of heterogeneous databases. Expected results: Generation of a traceability system able to support the traceability maintenance of the business processes executed along the supply chain of olive oil, obtained through: definition of a standard for the encoding of information; definition of rules and procedures for the proper management of the system;
Conclusions and Future Developments: The main goal of the proposed research work is to develop the prototype of a traceability system and implement it in a real olive oil production process. Through the final system, each operator in the Supply Chain, is able to: guarantee the origin and quality of a food product; Assure the compliance with regulation and standards of quality and safety; improve logistics and improve inventory management; manage the entire life cycle of products.
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