TraceGains launches AI solution to streamline COA processing and enhance food safety

TraceGains, a leading provider of compliance and quality solutions for the food and beverage (F&B) industry, has announced the launch of its new Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) solution, aimed at streamlining the processing of Certificates of Analysis (COA) and enhancing material compliance and lot-level ingredient quality control. The solution is designed to improve operational efficiency and accuracy in food safety and compliance workflows.

Paul Bradley, Senior Director of Product Marketing, TraceGains said:

We designed IDP to deliver superior accuracy and reliability by continuously learning and improving with every use. Our AI-driven solution eliminates the inefficiencies of manual data verification, empowering brands to proactively manage supply chain quality and compliance. Customer feedback indicates it is a smarter, faster way to ensure the safety and integrity of the products consumers rely on.”

Addressing common COA processing challenges

The new IDP platform, built on OpenAI’s foundation model and trained specifically for the F&B sector, addresses common challenges in COA processing. The solution automatically reviews incoming COAs against required specifications, identifying discrepancies and flagging them for human review when necessary. This system eliminates much of the manual work involved in verifying COAs, reducing time spent on manual setup and increasing accuracy.

The release of the IDP solution comes at a time when many companies in the F&B industry rely on outdated, error-prone methods to process large volumes of COAs. In some cases, this manual approach can take up to 12 minutes per page, contributing to delays and increased risk of mistakes. According to TraceGains, the new AI-powered system is expected to reduce processing times and enhance compliance, addressing these inefficiencies head-on.

Greg Heartman, Vice President, Product Management, TraceGains added:

By combining our rich contextual TraceGains data with the OpenAI model, we’ve created a vertical-specific AI solution for brands to manage the continual quality of their supply chain and ensure consumer food safety.”

AI-Powered Document Processing

IDP leverages advancements in artificial intelligence and natural language processing to handle non-standardised documents commonly circulated across global supply chains, such as ingredient specifications, food safety data, allergen declarations and sustainability reports. The solution extracts critical data from these documents and converts it into structured, usable information that integrates seamlessly with TraceGains’ other tools, allowing for better data flow and easier compliance management.

Unlike traditional Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies, which are limited to predefined formats, the IDP system is designed to process a wider variety of document types with higher accuracy. The AI system also improves over time, learning from each document it processes to continually refine data extraction and accuracy.

The launch of IDP marks an important step for TraceGains as it aims to modernise and automate food safety and compliance processes in the F&B sector. By reducing reliance on manual processes and improving data accuracy, the solution has the potential to reduce risks associated with food safety and compliance violations.