When you work with fresh products that are consumed, it is crucial to be well informed about the composition of your products. This can be easily and efficiently tracked in a PIM/MDM system. What is the importance of an MDM system in the food sector?
the importance of PIM/MDM in the food sector
YellowGround are the MDM and PIM experts of the Benelux. We mentioned before that MDM or PIM is the missing ingredient in the food sector, but in this blog we’ll talk about the importance of PIM for the food sector.
Traceability
For producers and distributors in the food sector, it is extremely important to keep track of where products or ingredients originate, and also at which locations these products or ingredients have been located. When something is wrong with one of the ingredients or production locations, you have to act quickly to get the right products off the shelves. It is also important to keep track of this data historically. For example, manufacturers sometimes change (small) things in their production process. For example: breakfast cereals that are made with slightly less sugar, or certain substances that are no longer allowed in food due to new EU rules. These products are sometimes also available to the consumer for a while.
Sustainability
For some brands it is also important to keep track of the sustainability of certain products. For example with a chain like UDEA. Some of their customers only want local products or organic products. Many attributes within a PIM or MDM system are about, for example, the organic certificates. Also important to indicate here is what the country of origin is to the consumer. For example, avocados from Israel, some customers do not want products from conflict areas. The customers of these companies from the food sector expect to see this information before purchasing their product, and as a product and distributor you must be able to respond to this.
ALLERGENS
It is extremely important for the food sector to indicate the allergens in products, and this also has legal obligations. Not only must you state which allergens are present in the product, but also which allergens are present in the factory. This is also part of PIM. This way you can manage allergen information centrally and in one place. Suppose the legislation changes regarding which products require a label, you do not have to adjust it product by product. You only have to manage the icons once and not per product. With a PIM system you save time and reduce the chance of (human) errors.