01 Oct 2025

7 surprising opportunities that come with digital traceability

It's more than being able to trace and track your products with the click of a button

Digital traceability systems are changing dynamics in food processing. But are you aware the same systems bring a surprising number of extra opportunities to improve yield and throughput, reduce giveaway, and increase flexibility? It all adds up to better food safety and stronger profitability. What do you have to lose?

1. Extend product shelf life

Automating production lines reduces processing times. Volatile raw materials move from receiving through processing and into end of line with more efficiency, and minimal manual handling. This reduces contamination risks and ensures end products reach retailers, wholesalers and other customers faster. That means longer times on shelves and less waste from spoiling.

The same intelligent technology that gathers data for traceability can also monitor and match incoming raw materials to outgoing orders. Providing incredible inventory and order management control. So, your stock is moving quickly, rather than sitting in refrigeration or storage as its best before date gets closer.

2. Improve quality control

Quality control monitors product safety, hygiene, and traceability. When it is working at its best it ensures brand reputation, and meets the demands of authorities, customers, and consumers.

Quality control software reliably collects and integrates quality control inspection data, so you can increase the quality, consistency and value of your processes and products. With cross-correlation of multiple data streams, you will get rapid, cost-effective means of quality assurance – totally paperless and automated.

Smart, data-driven processes can address any quality issues immediately, so you do not have to deal with problems further down the line or on completion of an order. And you can raise efficiency further with a quality control system that monitors performance and responds quickly to any deviation.

3. Flexible and adaptable production lines

Product trends change fast, putting pressure on processors to be more flexible and adaptable to stay relevant in the market.

Intelligent technology with easy-to-operate dashboards integrates with software systems to provide real-time oversight and control. Giving operators the flexibility to make immediate changes to production runs, without long change over times, to meet last-minute order shifts and product mixes.

Flexible production lines and planning tools help both to predict what to produce and ensure reliable and efficient throughput is maintained even with smaller runs. The software ensures you can respond to fluctuations in supplier or customer conditions, raw material flows and quality, as well as any demand or schedule changes, all in real time.

By improving agility, you will also increase your factory uptime and yield by minimizing changeovers and enabling flexible scheduling. If you integrate analyzing software into your processing, you can investigate data in real time and make immediate, informed decisions to refine your production systems.

4. Easily traceable products

Traceability data is required to comply with food laws and control regulations. More and more, regulators, auditors and supply chain partners are pushing for data to be digitally accessible. Reducing time to trace products thereby minimizing possible contamination events.

The technology to meet these requirements effectively not only improves food safety but offers opportunities for processors to market products at premium prices by supplying detailed product information for individual products, on clear, readable labels that also meet customer and brand specifics.

With a traceability engine built into your process, you can record each step of a product’s journey, from source to shelf.

5. Leaving inaccuracies behind

Accurate, reliable data can reveal the ‘pains’ in your factory and help you identify opportunities for improvement. Food processing software gathers, stores, and manages the data generated across production lines and beyond.

Zakrzewscy PL Beef Factory Customer Story

Invaluable information on yield, throughput, capacity, and labor efficiency provides crucial oversight which enables greater control. Data on a machine level can also highlight recurring problems with equipment functionality to show which specific area needs attention, which helps you to schedule maintenance proactively and avoid unexpected, and costly downtime.

With the right production data at your fingertips, it’s easier to identify ways to reduce bottlenecks and increase throughput, which can in turn help you develop new products and processes, thereby opening up new revenue streams.

6. Effective manual handling to boost yield

Margins are tight, and money lost to the cutting room floor is no longer tenable. With labor hard to find it is crucial to utilize the skills of the people you have where they can create the most value, i.e., you need to be making the most of every cut. Advanced automation helps you to reduce labor costs and ensure the production of consistent high-quality products, by reducing inaccuracies and inconsistencies in manual tasks.

Automated systems reduce manual handling thereby improving food safety. They take over the heavy lifting and intense operations which have high health and safety risks. And they streamline training and manual cutting tasks with accurate oversight and instructions, meaning maintaining product consistency is simplified even during staff turnovers.

7. Reduce giveaway

Are you seeing the opportunities in 100% of your raw material? Is your production focused on just one premium product, while the remaining parts are sold at low prices or wasted?

Every processing line—from primary processing to deboning systems, from portioning to filleting—can be designed to gain extra grams per product and add value to the offcuts of every piece of meat, poultry, or fish.

The key is also to be able to act on any surpluses or shortfalls and utilize a setup that allows you to change processing programs from one product to another. An automated process with data-driven insight is much more flexible than a manual one and also enables you to see what needs to be changed quickly.

When you can use real-time and historical data analysis you can balance incoming raw material and customer orders, create new product opportunities, and dramatically reduce your giveaway or waste. Adding value and increasing sustainability of processing.

Every detail enables positive results

Sustainable food production not only supports processors, but supplies consumers with safe, quality, affordable food. Innovative technology including automation, robotics, and software work together to solve the challenges of processors and ensure they not only meet regulatory requirements for traceability and food safety but do so while boosting yields and profitability.

The value in making everything count is not a new concept. Butchers, fishers, and farmers have been working with this mantra since the beginning of time.

JBT Marel understands and respects this heritage which is why we continue to develop new ways to transform the future of food by giving processors the tools to see and act on the details that make differences with ease, accuracy and exceptional results.

Food processors that are making everything count:

Himmerlandskod Jbtmarel Customer Story 5

Customer stories1 / 10

I say it with a smile—we went from the Flintstones to Star Wars in a single weekend, when we closed the old factory and started up the new one with Marel.

Søren Andersen, Plant Manager

Himmerlandskød

“Marel and Baiada both share a strong commitment to full inline processing in the most sustainable way.”

Simon Camilleri, CEO

Baiada, Australia

We had trim waste with an excess of 23%. That is just unacceptable, we were throwing millions of dollars down the drain.

Mike Hughes, Debone Plant Manager

Claxton Poultry

We have 24 products that we can pack at the same time to meet 50 to 60 orders simultaneously.

Børge Holm, General Manager

Holmøy

Sometimes you get auditors that know of Marel, and straight off the bat, that puts them at ease.

Enoch Robinson, Technical Manager

JK Thomson

Employees are motivated, incentivized, and have taken ownership of their throughput

Danny Sedra, VP of Operations

Les Viandes Central Bernard

Marel software will allow us to better control our process, understand what is happening, and make better decisions about where to send our products.

Michel de Jesus, Senior Production Plant Manager

Arasco Entaj Poultry

We have far greater traceability over every cattle we produce.

Henry Hart, Executive Director

John Dee

’Always improve’ is our goal

Alexander Johnsen, General Manager

Astafjord

It’s about convenience of product for a customer... delivering a product as efficiently as possible.

Colman Keohane, Managing Director

Keohane Seafoods

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7 surprising opportunities that come with digital traceability

It's more than being able to trace and track your products with the click of a button

1. Extend product shelf life

2. Improve quality control

3. Flexible and adaptable production lines

4. Easily traceable products

5. Leaving inaccuracies behind

6. Effective manual handling to boost yield

7. Reduce giveaway

Every detail enables positive results

Food processors that are making everything count:

Customer stories1 / 10

I say it with a smile—we went from the Flintstones to Star Wars in a single weekend, when we closed the old factory and started up the new one with Marel.

Customer stories2 / 10

“Marel and Baiada both share a strong commitment to full inline processing in the most sustainable way.”

Customer stories3 / 10

We had trim waste with an excess of 23%. That is just unacceptable, we were throwing millions of dollars down the drain.

Customer stories4 / 10

We have 24 products that we can pack at the same time to meet 50 to 60 orders simultaneously.

Customer stories5 / 10

Sometimes you get auditors that know of Marel, and straight off the bat, that puts them at ease.

Customer stories6 / 10

Employees are motivated, incentivized, and have taken ownership of their throughput

Customer stories7 / 10

Marel software will allow us to better control our process, understand what is happening, and make better decisions about where to send our products.

Customer stories8 / 10

We have far greater traceability over every cattle we produce.

Customer stories9 / 10

’Always improve’ is our goal

Customer stories10 / 10

It’s about convenience of product for a customer... delivering a product as efficiently as possible.

Get in touch

7 surprising opportunities that come with digital traceability

It's more than being able to trace and track your products with the click of a button

1. Extend product shelf life

2. Improve quality control

3. Flexible and adaptable production lines

4. Easily traceable products

5. Leaving inaccuracies behind

6. Effective manual handling to boost yield

7. Reduce giveaway

Every detail enables positive results

Food processors that are making everything count:

Customer stories1 / 10

I say it with a smile—we went from the Flintstones to Star Wars in a single weekend, when we closed the old factory and started up the new one with Marel.

Customer stories2 / 10

“Marel and Baiada both share a strong commitment to full inline processing in the most sustainable way.”

Customer stories3 / 10

We had trim waste with an excess of 23%. That is just unacceptable, we were throwing millions of dollars down the drain.

Customer stories4 / 10

We have 24 products that we can pack at the same time to meet 50 to 60 orders simultaneously.

Customer stories5 / 10

Sometimes you get auditors that know of Marel, and straight off the bat, that puts them at ease.

Customer stories6 / 10

Employees are motivated, incentivized, and have taken ownership of their throughput

Customer stories7 / 10

Marel software will allow us to better control our process, understand what is happening, and make better decisions about where to send our products.

Customer stories8 / 10

We have far greater traceability over every cattle we produce.

Customer stories9 / 10

’Always improve’ is our goal

Customer stories10 / 10

It’s about convenience of product for a customer... delivering a product as efficiently as possible.

Get in touch

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