Fuzzy Traceability: A Process Simulation Derived Extension of the Traceability Concept in Continuous Food Processing

Liquid food production often involves continuous processing. This leads to problems in traceability systems due to mixing zones and therefore indistinct batch identities causing difficulties with regard to withdrawals or recalls. This article outlines the possible use of the concept of dynamic simulation to improve the handling of batch identities in continuous production of liquid food, a concept we call fuzzy traceability. The concept is illustrated with a realistic example from a real dairy process line.