USDA COOL
In 2009, the USDA finalized mandatory country of origin labeling, or COOL. Essentially, this law requires retailers and their suppliers to maintain documentation on certain foods’ origin from the most immediate supplier to the most immediate recipient, all the way to the consumer.
Food products included in the law are:
- Muscle Cuts of beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, and goat
- Ground beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, and goat
- Fish and shellfish (wild and farm-raised)
- Fruits and vegetables
- Peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts
- Ginseng
Excluding
- Processed food items defined as having a “change of character”
- Smoked, cooked, or cured food for example
- Food combined with another food component
As with any law, there are considerable definitions, requirements, and exclusions, and for the most accurate, up-to-date information and to determine if your organization is subject to COOL, please visit www.ams.usda.gov/COOL.
bcFood is COOL
The purpose of this article is to review COOL compliance and demonstrate for our current and future clients that bcFood enables and assists with COOL compliance.
End-to-End Traceability
bcFood captures lot information from the point of receipt, through production, final packaging, warehouse, and final shipment to the customer. With just a few clicks of the mouse, the Lot Trace function provides supply-to-demand traceability, the results of which can be exported to customer or vendor lists for recall purposes.
Real-Time Processing
bcFood is developed in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, the world’s most widely used small and mid-market ERP application available. Dynamics is a real-time system, designed in a manner that maintains database integrity.
In Dynamics, “real-time” means that when any kind of transaction is entered, it is automatically saved within the system and depending on the type of transaction, the results may be used immediately within other areas of the system. For example, when an inventory item is sold and a sales order is entered, the quantity is automatically subtracted from the item availability. The sales order doesn’t have to be posted for the information to become accessible and usable in other areas of the system. This is helpful in the event of a recall, because the sale would be reported even if the product hadn’t been shipped yet, potentially avoiding a situation before it is made worse (by shipping a staged item that comes under recall).
Database integrity is maintained through an architecture designed for versioning and complete record audit. In many systems, multiple, separate files are used to maintain detail and summarized information. Under certain conditions, these files become unsynchronized with each other or worse, corrupted. Dynamics is designed in a way to eliminate redundant data. Instead, Microsoft Dynamics’ transactional data is used to provide summary information. Details will always equal the summary information. Microsoft Dynamics also uses a “versioning” technology so that incomplete database updates roll-back to their previous state – automatically! This eliminates most reasons for corruption.
Finally, transactional details are always maintained within the database. Records cannot be deleted under normal use (well they can, but it’s a challenge). Because of this, transactional audit trails always exist. If you need to report on the purchase or sale of a particular product a year (or several years) after its use, Dynamics will have the record – quickly and easily.
Country of Origin Information
bcFood captures country of origin when a product is received. This means you’ll always have the information you need for your customers – even if it is used in a co-mingled, or blended, product. With a simple report, you can present the country of origin from each item lot used in a process. This information can be supplied to your customer at the time of shipment.
A Proven Solution
Given the design of bcFood and Dynamics, you can rest assured that coupled with good, consistent business processes, you will have the necessary information to comply with COOL.For more details and review of your compliance and business practices, please contact us at 800.456.8474.
