{"id":7586,"date":"2021-05-25T02:25:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T06:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=7586"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:34:16","slug":"how-erp-helps-food-and-beverage-manufacturers-keep-formulas-fixed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/how-erp-helps-food-and-beverage-manufacturers-keep-formulas-fixed\/","title":{"rendered":"How ERP Helps Food and Beverage Manufacturers Keep Formulas Fixed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow ERP Helps Food and Beverage Manufacturers Keep Formulas Fixed\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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According to data from the Government of Canada<\/a>, the food and beverage processing industry is the second-largest manufacturing industry in the country \u2014 in 2019 alone, food and beverage manufacturers generated sales of more than $117 billion, or 17 percent of total manufacturing sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020 changed all that; while many industries were hard-hit by the pandemic, food and beverage companies faced the dual challenge of supply chain disruptions and front-line frustrations as supply lines dried up \u2014 even as many restaurants and other food purchasers shuttered their doors. Now, the sector is beginning a slow restart as operating conditions around the globe have begun to stabilize. To help combat the challenge of potential future food and beverage disruptions, many companies have chosen to diversify operations either by bringing back some portion of their manufacturing process to Canada <\/a>or opening new sites in other countries that are geographically closer to key supply sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge? Consistency. Ensuring that food and beverage formulas are consistent across operations worldwide to deliver on both evolving consumer expectations of quality and emerging regulatory rulings around transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recipes, Risk and Regulations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As noted by New Food Magazine<\/a>, one of the biggest challenges for food and beverage companies post-COVID is safety. This includes both the safety of workers on-site and that of customers \u2014 both food vendors and eventual consumers now have a vested interest in tracking food components from origin to composition to destination to ensure products meet their high standards. This is also reflected in legislation; in Canada, for example, milk and eggs are both highly-regulated commodities<\/a> that must pass rigorous screenings to ensure their safety for consumption. Food and beverage products imported into the country are also subject to regulatory assessment to verify their origins and composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For food and beverage manufacturers, evolving regulations highlight the need for consistent recipes regardless of geographic location. The absence of this consistency, meanwhile, introduces significant risk \u2014 if products don’t meet import or export regulations, or lack the traceability demanded by consumers, the results can be disastrous. At a federal and provincial level, non-compliance could mean fines, sanctions or eventual closure of manufacturing plants. At a customer level, reputation damage is possible \u2014 and persistent. Poor quality or lacking consistency of products can lead to long-term avoidance of specific brands or food items, and can also drive social sanctions stemming from poor online commentary and reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put simply? To reduce risk, food and beverage producers need consistent and compliant food formulas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice Makes Perfect?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to creating reliable and repeatable recipes for food items no matter where they’re produced, practice seems like the obvious place to start; if items are created at speed and scale, over and over and over again, the result should be a more consistent outcome, correct? Here, the challenge is complexity: From changing staff volumes and skill sets to ingredient specifications and supplier lists, even small deviations from standard formulas can result in significantly different products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure food formula consistency, five factors are key:<\/p>\n\n\n\n