Since joining the NotaZone Team 2 years ago; its been incredibly rewarding using my 7+ years of knowledge (and gripes) of food producing to a Salsa standard, to not only help customers implement the system into their food businesses, but also help my colleagues create new features to make Compliance easier for our users too.
The real game changer has been Task Lists. This innovation took us beyond just a traceability solution, transforming the platform into a comprehensive replacement for most of your everyday paperwork as well.
So not only can you retire those clipboards and metal detectable pens, but to top it off, you can access all the results collected from each task list within the Task List Overview. Here you can review the details for a specific batch or order, or compare results across multiple time frames—such as tracking cooking temperatures over a months worth of production orders. Plus, all this data can be easily exported from NotaZone for deeper analysis.
The positive feedback we’ve since received from customers, after their EHO inspections and Salsa or BRC audits, has far exceeded anything we imagined when this functionality was first conceived.
The next focus for the team was improving our allergen functionality, a key requirement in food compliance.
NotaZone has always offered robust tools for capturing product data for labelling. For example, at Baked In, when a Salsa Auditor required extra allergen labelling of ingredients, the Team tailored a Goods In label to meet this standard, eliminating the added cost and labour of applying additional labels.
However, there wasn’t a way to generate a comprehensive report for all products, meaning separate Allergen tables still had to be maintained outside of NotaZone for both ingredients and products produced. After this requirement was raised with the NotaZone Team, they quickly developed the Product Allergens Overview, giving a simple summary of the information.
You can now filter this table by product, view both ‘contains’ and ‘may contain’ allergen statuses, and export the data — eliminating the need to update allergens across multiple spreadsheets. (They also created some great other Overviews, like Acceptance Criteria at the same time too).
So what's next on our Compliance hit list?
If NotaZone already manages nutrition, allergens, and other key data for product labelling, why not extend this to a full specification sheet for your finished products? Applying this data to a Template will remove the need to update Spec Sheets one at a time, as changes to the Template would be able to applied to all products in one go, saving hours of your technical departments time.
We’re currently collaborating with several customers to define their Spec Sheet requirements, and are excited to release our first template in the very near future.
Back when I was Head of Ops at Baked In, I’d have traded my Linear Weigher for these functions; saving us countless hours on paperwork and updating documents, delivered clear digital records (no more deciphering scribbles), and eliminated the need for endless filing. Its just great that I can now help our customers eliminate those same stresses, with the new features we've been able to create within the system.
I’m truly proud to be part of the NotaZone Team and everything we’ve accomplished, helping our customers focus on what they do best ...making outstanding food and sharing it with others.
If you’re interested in streamlining compliance and reducing paperwork, get in touch to see how NotaZone and I can support you. And we're always keen to hear your ideas too.