2023 IPPE: Arm & Hammer’s PassTrac Analytics reduces food safety risks in processing plants
Artificial intelligence (AI) uses predictive analysis to drive change on-farm and in the plant
8 February 2023
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Leveraging powerful AI, PassTrac Analytics provides specific, data-driven solutions to reduce the food safety risk in meat and poultry processing plants.
“PassTrac Analytics is a data analytics platform that really helps us utilize the power of & within the Arm & Hammer Food Production business,” said Roger Beers, Director of Integrated Food Business at Arm & Hammer Animal and Food Production. “It allows us to gather data by working with our customers that spans from the pre-harvest on-farm production all the way through food production, so farm to package.”
Using the data, PassTrac Analytics can see what's going on in an integrated operation and get predictive trends of what might be impacting not only animal performance, but also animal performance as it comes into the processing plant for shelf life extensions, shelf life impacts, food quality and overall food safety.
“It allows us to look at trends, potentially on-farm from an animal performance standpoint and be able to predict what some potential challenges may be emerging,” he said. “We can then take that all the way through the food processing plant.”
Predictive analytics utilizes AI that powers automation to accurately identify potential high-risk situations long before they happen. Prescriptive analytics combines predictive modeling with food safety industry expertise to reveal the optimal actions to take to lower pathogen levels and reduce risk to the plant.
For example, one of the integrated processors that Arm & Hammer works with had identified a pathogen in the production facility that potentially posed a health risk, but they couldn't determine where those pathogens were coming from.
“Over a multi-month project, we were able to determine the specific farms within their operation that were bringing that pathogen through the production chain,” he said. “Rather than waiting for it to hit the plant, we were able to bring a solution on-farm to reduce the pathogen load from the two farms. So PassTrac Analytics is not only predictive, but it's also prescriptive. We don't have to treat all 400 of their farms within that complex, we can get very focused on the individual operations that are contributing to the challenge.”
Who should be using PassTrac Analytics?
“Anyone who has ownership of the animal - whether it's chickens, turkeys, swine - and a vested interest in the animals from the day of hatch or the day of farrowing all the way through the processing operation,” said Beers. “It's designed for integrated companies that want to manage the entire production cycle from farm to fork.”
Beers said Arm & Hammer is uniquely positioned to bring a product like PassTrac Analytics to the market because they’re the only business that has the ability to bring animal performance solutions on-farm that also translate to food safety solutions in the processing plant.
“Arm & Hammer has always been a leader, and once again, we led the way through the realignment of our business, bringing the two pre-harvest and post-harvest teams together under one business unit to drive the prescriptive and predictive types of analytical solutions we need to improve food safety, food quality and animal performance.”
