The verdict in three sentences
The day a spice supplier flags a contamination, the technical manager of a ready-meal factory in the Home Counties or County Dublin must identify within 4 hours every affected finished product, every customer delivered and the stock left. With 300 raw materials and 14,000 batches a year, paper logs and cross-referenced spreadsheets cannot hit that target, as the twice-yearly mock recalls required by IFS Food or BRCGS keep showing. Custom traceability software falls in Kolonell's simple to medium brackets, 2,500,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA (3,810 to 10,670 EUR), over 4 to 6 months.
Why paper traceability fails when it matters
Retained EU Regulation 178/2002 in the UK and its EU version in Ireland require one step back and one step forward for every batch. BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 and IFS Food version 8 add a timed traceability test, in practice 4 hours, with quantity reconciliation close to 100 %.
| Mock recall step (2026 estimate) | Paper logs and spreadsheets | Traceability software |
|---|---|---|
| Find affected raw material batches | 1 to 3 hours | under 1 minute |
| Trace forward to finished batches | 2 to 6 hours | instant |
| List customers and quantities shipped | 1 to 2 hours | instant |
| Mass balance (in, used, waste, stock) | 70 to 90 % reconciled | 98 to 100 % |
| Pack for the FSA or FSAI and customers | half a day | 10 minutes |
| Risk of a major non-conformity | high | low |
A poorly targeted recall is expensive: pulling a full week of production as a precaution instead of three precise batches can mean £70,000 to £170,000 (80,000 to 200,000 EUR) of stock, plus the damage with Tesco, Sainsbury's or Dunnes buyers.
What food traceability software does
| Function | What it does | Hardware |
|---|---|---|
| Goods in | Supplier batches, use-by dates, certificates, temperature checks | Barcode scanner, connected probe |
| Recipes and allergens | Bills of materials, 14 regulated allergens, label data | Office PC |
| Production | Works orders, actual batch consumption, weighing | Rugged tablets, connected scales |
| Packing and labelling | Batch code, use-by date, GS1-128 label | Label printers |
| Dispatch | Batches per pallet and per customer | Dock scanner |
| Recall and mass balance | Backward and forward tree, quantity reconciliation | Quality dashboard |
The hardest part is shop-floor entry: operators wear gloves, the environment is cold and wet. A big-button interface on a rugged tablet with mandatory scanning separates paper traceability from real traceability.
Budget: food ERP or custom module
Food-industry ERPs cost, as a 2026 order of magnitude, £35,000 to £130,000 (40,000 to 150,000 EUR) to implement for a plant this size, plus £9,000 to £26,000 a year. They make sense if purchasing, sales and accounting all need replacing. If the factory already has decent order management, a custom traceability module connected to it is faster and cheaper.
- Simple: 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 FCFA (3,810 to 6,100 EUR), goods in, production, dispatch and recall.
- Medium: 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA (6,100 to 10,670 EUR), with recipes, allergens, labelling and order system interfaces.
- Maintenance: 35,000, 75,000 or 120,000 FCFA a month (53, 114 or 183 EUR).
Hardware (tablets, scanners, printers) and hosting are quoted separately.
How the rollout runs
Week 1 to 3: we replay your last mock recall and map every paper record. Months 2 to 3: build of goods in, production and dispatch, tested on one line. Month 4: pilot on the busiest line with real batches. Months 5 to 6: extension to all lines, then a full mock recall run with your team to prove the 4-hour target before the next audit.
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Siobhan, technical manager of a 120-person ready-meal plant outside Dublin, runs two mock recalls a year. Each one ties up 4 people for 6 hours, and the last audit found mass balance reconciled at 85 %.
- Mock recall time: 2 × 4 × 6 = 48 hours a year, cut to 4 hours.
- Paper record keeping: 1 hour a day for 3 team leaders, 690 hours a year, cut to about 200.
- At 35 EUR loaded hourly cost, the saving exceeds 18,000 EUR a year.
For a 9,000 EUR medium-bracket project plus 114 EUR of monthly maintenance, the investment is covered in year one, before a single real recall is better targeted. A London plant would see the same order of saving in pounds.
FAQ
Is the software enough to pass BRCGS or IFS?
No, the audit covers the whole quality system. But traceability includes a fundamental requirement, and a passed test within 4 hours at 100 % reconciliation secures a large part of it.
Can it connect to our existing order system?
Yes, by API or file exchange, to pull orders and push dispatched batches. Allow 2 to 4 weeks per interface.
How are allergens handled?
The 14 regulated allergens are attached to each raw material, and a recipe inherits them automatically. That prevents labelling errors, the leading cause of food recalls in the UK and Ireland.
Will operators actually use it?
Yes if each entry takes under 10 seconds: scan the batch, confirm the weight. A 3-week pilot on one line lets us tune the interface before rollout.
How long must data be kept?
Usually shelf life plus 6 months, often 5 years as a precaution. Batches are archived and remain searchable for the whole period.
Let's scope your project. We start from your last mock recall to define scope, then roll out line by line over 4 to 6 months. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
