Have a butcher’s at your supply chain this Sausage Week

The Big Sausage Week is here, and there is no better time for restaurants and their customers to come together and celebrate one of the nation’s most treasured meats. However, for restaurants with complex supply chains, the risks that come with sausages, such as allergens and the use of antibiotics in the meat supply chain, can make The Big Sausage Week feel more like a chore than a celebration.

Keeping antibiotics (sn)out of your supply chain!

Treating pigs with antimicrobial drugs can help them grow more efficiently and can keep them alive for longer before they end up on a plate. Unfortunately, concerns around human antibiotic resistance and the use of these drugs can mean the sausage and meat market is becoming increasingly ethically driven, as consumers are demanding to know more about the origins of their bangers.

Keeping antibiotic use out of your sausage and meat supply chain can prove to be a difficult task – especially for businesses with large supply chains. Failure to do so could result in damage to your reputation and brand and loss of customer retention.

In fact, our research revealed that 47% of foodservice operators felt that they were exposed to the risks antibiotics in the supply chain can cause.

Allergens in your bangers

With hundreds of different variants, providing a sausage that’s allergen-free can be a near-impossible task – so it is important that customers know exactly what’s in them before sticking one on the end of their fork.

Sausages generally contain pork which is combined with other ingredients (many of which feature in the Annex II list), such as gluten, sulphites and mustard, and these can pose a risk to people affected by allergies. Failure to provide the customer with accurate allergen information about sausage content can result in fines, damage to the brand and, in a wurst case scenario, death.

For foodservice operators, it is imperative to identify and communicate all allergens present to customers, and many are looking for complete transparency in their supply chains to achieve this.

How to save your bacon

Supplier management software can provide foodservice operators with a clear advantage when it comes to the risks associated with the humble sausage.

This software, such as Trade Interchange’s ARCUS^® SIM, requires the supplier to upload key information based on your company needs, such as antibiotic usage records and allergen policies. This instantly provides you with all of the necessary compliance data. By placing all data completing and document uploads throughout the relationship onto the supplier, the administrative burden is also reduced.

All of this information is stored centrally in the cloud, enabling quick and easy access to assigned users from anywhere.

Complete transparency in the supply chain, which comes from using SIM software, can mean the hassle associated with tracking allergens and compliance with antibiotic usage is significantly reduced.