AmericaPack Summit 2025 draws over 150 Industry Experts

It is estimated that more than 150 industry experts will be in attendance this year to share their experiences during 2024. Mike Hughes, Business Development Director, and Keith Prior, Sales Engineer from the JBT Marel teams will be at the event to capture this current thinking. There is no doubt that topics relating to past and future events will emerge from these conversations.

Review of past events

1. Food Recall Prevention

In 2024, the US recalled around 300¹ food products, a third of which were undeclared allergens. AutoCoding Systems specializes in food recall prevention, led by Mike Hughes, Business Development Director, who has over 20 years’ experience in the field, including expertise in date code control and label verification.

“There are a number of routes that can lead to an undeclared allergen incident. Here in the UK and the US, we work closely with retailers and their manufacturers to implement an automated packaging verification system that ensures the right packaging is placed on the right product. This is particularly important where different allergens are handled on site, which we are seeing more of as the use of private labelling increases. Our world-class software product for automatic line set up of food packaging lines eliminates human error, by preventing the use of the wrong film, sleeve or label, thus preventing the occurrence of undeclared allergens. Existing customers are seeing the benefits of AutoCoding Systems – a product designed to prevent the wrong date code, barcode or pack being sent to the retailer, through in-line reactive line stops and control measures.”

Looking ahead to future needs

2. FSMA electronic sortable spreadsheet

There will certainly be some interesting discussions about FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act requirements. The agency has been proactively educating and preparing for the FSMA final rule (Final Rule on Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods) over the past few years. The rule will affect certain food producers and manufacturers, and much effort has been put into campaigning on the record-keeping requirements, including the need for an electronic sortable spreadsheet. The rule and associated record-keeping obligations must be in place by 20 January 2026.

Keith Prior, Sales Engineer, emphasizes:

“We have just under a year to meet this deadline and I have been actively promoting how we can help. AutoCoding gives manufacturers the ability to export production and packaging related data. They can include the date the ingredients first entered the warehouse, the location of the warehouse and where it has been stored, through customized integrations.  In addition, we can provide all the product-related information such as the batch number and product description.”

“Essentially, we can fill the data gap required on the packaging line if it’s not currently available in the packaging arena. These can be delivered as exportable spreadsheets under bespoke AutoCoding reports. As an agnostic software company, we can connect to enterprise-level business management systems such as ERP, WMS and MES to extend automation and maintain a single source of truth, as well as connect to various inspection devices on the packaging lines to maintain control on the factory floor,” Keith added.

If you would like an introductory discussion on how our software solutions can prevent packaging errors, improve traceability, maintain production reliability and enhance consumer safety, please contact us by email: [email protected]

Source:

1. Deidre McPhillips and Annette Choi, CNN, 18 February 2025, ‘Food recalls in the US were more widespread – and deadly – in 2024’, Food recalls in the US were more widespread – and deadly – in 2024 | CNN