Centric Software and FoodChain ID’s platform enables regulatory compliance during food and cosmetics innovation

12 Oct 2023 --- US Silicon Valley-based product lifecycle management (PLM) provider Centric Software and regulatory compliance provider FoodChain ID, are joining forces to create an integrated platform that screens ingredients throughout the product development lifecycle.

“We are overjoyed about our alliance with FoodChain ID. It marries Centric’s technological expertise in F&B, cosmetics, beauty and other formulated goods with FoodChain ID’s extensive global databases and stellar reputation in food safety and regulatory compliance,” says Chris Groves, CEO at Centric Software.

He asserts that the collaboration will offer users confidence in “formulations and the means to work seamlessly in one platform, driving even more efficiency into product development.”

“With FoodChain ID’s data sources pulling from over 220 countries, the data quality of our compliance engine is second to none,” adds Clinton Chadwick, VP of strategic partnerships at FoodChain ID.

Access to regulatory data 
The regulatory compliance data tools provided by FoodChain ID include a reference library with access to over 160,000 regulations in 228 countries, a digital assessment tool for products and bills and market entry and compliance analysis. 

Centric Software offers product concept-to-launch platforms for manufacturers, brands and retailers in theF&B industry. 

These platforms include Centric PLM and help to manage the streamlining of product design, development, packaging and sustainability. Centric Visual Boards aims to optimize team collaboration and get closer to consumers. Centric Planning focuses on product portfolio planning and Centric Pricing provides AI price assortment benchmarking and predictive pricing.

“What makes this partnership with Centric Software so exciting is the ability to accelerate product innovation with Centric PLM by reducing time-consuming iterations between product development and regulatory compliance teams,” comments Chadwick. The food and cosmetics industries are highly regulated, and companies need to remain on top of regulatory information. 

Understanding food and cosmetics regulations
The food and cosmetics industries are highly regulated, and for companies part of these supply chains, staying on top of regulatory information is vital to reducing formulation missteps and preventing time-consuming recalls.

PLMs like Centric Software aim to provide up-to-date regulatory information to relevant companies. 

By collaborating with FoodChain ID, gaining access to its regulatory libraries and databases and combining them with its Centric PLM platform, Centric Software promises to offer its clients in the food and cosmetics industries a more holistic understanding of regulatory compliance expectations. 

These are further said to provide much more thorough information comprehension of the relevant regulations compared to other PLM platforms that rely on manual look-ups and databases put together by in-house regulatory compliance teams. 

Ron Watson, executive VP of product at Centric Software, argues that formulating with FoodChain ID is a more efficient solution: “Product developers working in Centric PLM can see the immediate impact of ingredient changes against current global regulatory compliance regulations as they are formulating.”

For instance, a food or cosmetics scientist considering market expansion can apply Centric PLM, suggests Centric Software. By doing so, the scientist can evaluate a formula or ingredients by looking at the regulations in a target country and adjusting their formula at the development stage, where the negative impact of introducing changes to the ingredients would be less noticeable.

By Milana Nikolova