Turning Compliance into a Competitive Edge in F&B: From Brief to Green-Light in Real Time
04 Nov 2025 | FoodChain ID & Centric Software
In a world of fast-changing regulations, compliance missteps can quickly become multi-million-dollar setbacks. A single labeling issue, undeclared allergen or a restricted ingredient can lead to expensive recalls, reformulation projects and loss of consumer trust. The problem? Most companies check compliance too late in the product development process.
Join Kevin C. Kenny, Senior Advisor, FoodChain ID, and Giorgio Buccilli, Regional Sales Executive, Centric Software®, to discover how to move compliance earlier and turn it into a competitive advantage. You will see how integrating FoodChain ID’s expert-vetted regulatory intelligence with Centric PLM™ platform enables your teams to get an instant “red-green light” on compliance from the very first product brief, avoiding costly last-minute surprises.
Hi everyone, I'm Giorgio Buccili from Centric Software.
Thanks for joining this hands-on session.
In 30 minutes we'll show you how to bring compliance checks earlier in product development, so you avoid late reformulations and go live with confidence.
And I'm together with Kevin today.
OK, folks, and I am Kevin Kenny from Food Chain ID.
I'm a regulatory attorney with 33 years of experiences.
I founded Discernis in 2003, sold that company to Food Chain ID in 2019, and as a result of that, I've had the privilege for the last 24 or so years to work with teams navigating these issues.
So, going through regulatory compliance, regulatory.
Challenges, any kind of analysis issues, what's coming down the pike.
I love my job.
I have the coolest job on the planet.
Let's make clear what we're doing here isn't intended to be a sales demo.
It's intended to be a practical walkthrough that you can take back and apply to your own categories.
Great.
So here is the plan.
A quick real incident to set the context, and then two short real world scenarios.
One finished product and one ingredient blend showing how compliance decisions happen while you work and not weeks later.
OK, and, and while we're at it, let's keep this fairly interactive.
Please put any questions you've got into the questions bars as we go through this.
We will cover them at the end.
We will share a checklist with you that you can take back to your team, and if we can't get to all of the questions, it's a good problem to have, we'll answer them via email and we'll send them back to you.
Great.
So, let's start with the real case that many of you will recognize.
OK, so taking a look at this, I'm looking at the same screen.
You are, you'll notice that there's a pattern here.
There's a couple of things that are happening.
There are a lot of issues around undeclared allergens, and there are a lot of issues around undisclosed ingredients.
I'm going to pick an example that is Directly involved with the undisclosed ingredients.
So in this, in the, in the narrow example that I'm going to take, there were 4 drinks that included a pink lemonade, a yellow lemonade, a cola flavoring, and they were all recalled due to the presence of an undeclared food dye linked to cancer risk.
Your result, your consequence was you had to relabel.
The product was recalled.
You lost weeks.
You damaged your own brand.
This would have been avoidable earlier in the developmental cycle.
Yes, Kevin, what you described is It is not rare.
It happens.
Compliance team is asked often at the end, when recipes and variants and packaging and artwork are already committed, and any change at that point ripples through suppliers and timelines and product launch delays.
And our goal today is very practical, so to bring the compliance check forward to the product brief.
And keep it visible while you develop the product and make early go no go calls per market.
OK.
So, let's set this landscape that we're all operating in.
So, we're going to look at the landscape and then we'll walk through two short scenarios that you can then map to your categories.
So, you're seeing here some of the challenges that we're all familiar with.
In the last 33 years.
The one thing I can tell you, the rules change, the regulations change every day.
The EU, which we're showing here, have a whole bunch of challenges in particular with regulation changing at the federal, at the EU level, and at the member state level.
And I'll tell you, in the last 8 months in the United States, we've also had our challenges with challenges at the state side and the federal side.
It is exciting times and the regulations are really Changing every day right now.
So, looking at this, let me point out the obvious.
Milk, for example, is regulated differently in Italy than it is in Germany.
So let's take a look at some of the challenges that the developers are going through here.
Your max use levels, generally speaking, are tightening.
Your additives and functions are often reclassified.
You have new allergen rules.
You have claim wording and category specific thresholds that diverge by market.
And so what was legacy safe may no longer be.
Safe.
Some rules that people have applied now for decades are being revised right now, so you need jurisdiction-specific guidance that is both current and explainable, not just a static PDF.
Remember, time is money.
The same rule discovered at the very beginning costs you a couple of hours.
If it's discovered after the after the artwork has been done, after procurement has bought, it can cost you weeks and real money.
So, let's talk about how to bring that time forward so your development doesn't stall.
Yes, Kevin.
What I, what I hear from food developers is the compliance analysis itself is not the bottleneck, the timing is, because too often compliance is a, is a late gate.
And by then you've locked recipes and briefed artwork, so a small regulatory change at that stage becomes a chain reaction.
You have to reformulate, reapprove, and that's how months disappear.
The alternative is to treat compliance as a design constraint from day one.
So at the brief, you, you already declared markets, categories, and intended use of a product of raw materials, and that's the perfect moment to surface the regulatory boundaries, permitted, permitted functions, the levels, the combinations, and the claims that you can realistically keep.
And as an ingredient change that you see the impact in real time.
So green where you're fine, amber where you close, and red, where you need to make changes.
So no surprises at the end.
And two practical questions guide every team I work with.
First, Can one formula cover the target markets, or do we need variants?
And second, if we need variants, then where exactly do they diverge?
The level, the function.
And what's the simplest way to keep speed and margin?
So let's see an example in the next slide, Kevin to you.
OK.
So, let's take a look at this and let's set the problem with kind of concrete contrast.
So your common approach here is to lift and shift, to lift and launch.
You're basically taking the same formulation and you're applying it in two markets.
Even when you do that, even if you're just going across a pond, you're going to have different maximum use limits.
You're going to have different function allowances, different in combination rules.
EU is fairly famous for this.
You might have 4 different ingredients in there that happen to be colorants or happen to be.
Something colorants, sweeteners, preservatives, I think you get the idea.
And what will happen is your sum total for all of them can't be more than 100 mg per kilogram.
That's what's called in combination rules.
We called it internally at discernest additive sum, same concept, OK, that trips a lot of people at the development phase.
So the other thing I want to bring up briefly is allergens are also quite painful.
The US now has 9, EU has 14, Codex has 8.
These are changing fairly frequently, and you need to be a little bit careful that an allergen trace can change your outcome dramatically when you're making a free from claim because that claim will work in one country but won't work in another.
And so how the color or sweetener is permitted in market A is restricted or labeled differently than in market B.
So how You write your usage guidance for a B2B ingredient also changes when your downstream category shifts.
So the reality for developers is what passed with flying colors last year may not pass right now.
Know that, live that it is life or death that you check these early, as early as possible, and jurisdiction, jurisdiction-specific validation matters.
Yes, and on paper it's one product.
But the rules are different across the markets.
So we ask, can a single formal cover the target markets?
And if not, where do variants diverge?
And when those answers are visible at the brief onward, so you can plan variants instead of discovering them at the end.
So, let's see, a finished product scenario and how an early check, an early compliance check changes this path.
So the scenario number 1, a business to consumer snack product across two different markets.
Let's walk it and move to the next one.
OK, thank you.
So, you've got some regulatory challenges here that often affect snack bars, OK.
The different max use levels for colors, for sweeteners.
Even within the European Union, the countries may interpret use levels or carryover rules differently.
They might have different in combination limits on preservatives.
For example, you might have fiber or protein claims that shift with your serving size rules in each country.
Allergy labeling nuances.
Can I call it gluten-free?
What's the threshold, not sesame, and don't miss this one.
A change of supplier can introduce an allergen trace that flips a free from claim in one market but doesn't affect another one.
OK.
So catching these changes early avoids relabeling and reformulation later.
Time to market here is everything.
So let me paint a real kind of day to day scenario.
You have now a cereal bar line.
So you might have one that has high protein, you might have one that's aimed at kids, you might have one that's low sugar.
These are made in several sites.
They're sold in multiple countries.
The good news is that variant A of this clears every market.
Your challenge is that by variant B, some The base is the same, but there's a different sweetener, let's say, a different flavor.
It passes most of the market, but it fails one.
Why?
First of all, in combination rules, your preservatives go over that 100 mg per kilogram total limit.
Second, you've got a New flavor from a substitute supplier that brings in a trace allergen that ruins your free from plane.
Catching that as early as possible will help you to avoid relabeling, avoid reformulation, and keep your launch timing intact.
So, let me hand over to Giorgio on how we might actually tackle this.
Yes, in our integrated solution, Food chain ID brings the current food compliance rules.
And Centric PLM puts that intelligence in front of the developers.
And while they formulate the recipe, so imagine any regulatory compliance issue.
Identified early in the development process.
And with the centric function where used, it allows you to find out exactly where the problem is.
So the source can be multiple raw materials or semi-finished product which are nested within the, inside the, the, the product recipe.
And the platform searches, alternate raw materials, or even initiate a request for information, request for proposal to suppliers by using the integrated supplier collaboration portal.
So what you see here on the screen.
Within a given recipe, the system rolls up the ingredients at a, and, and the attributes at a flat formula level, checks the compliance again against the globally restricted substances database in food chain AD.
And gives you in seconds the response green where you're fine, amber where you're near a threshold, and red where you need to change, so no surprises at the end.
So, let's see then in the next slide how to avoid downstream noncompliance.
All right, so let's start for a second by framing the business to business reality.
You've got the same blend and it's going to end up in different downstream applications.
So let's say you've got it for dairy, for bakery, for beverages, and That those different usage categories mean you're going to have different functions, you're going to have different max use levels, you're going to have other in combination rules which can vary dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
You've got a use rate that is absolutely fine in a bakery glaze, but it might exceed the limits in, let's say, a children's yogurt, OK.
Let's also talk a little bit about claim impacts.
A clean label promise at the customer can easily be broken by a sub ingredient or a carryover additive if your guidance isn't precise.
So it is very important that you have expert reviewed, daily updated regulations, rules set to defensible usage guidance and specific specification language before those samples go out.
So let's translate that into day to day work for an ingredient solutions team.
Let's say we're developing a stabilizer brand that several customers are going to use in different categories.
In the beginning, in the brief, we declare the intended applications in the target markets.
From there we get a live view of the feasibility.
And at our proposed usage rate, we see that our blend is fine for bakery.
It's fine for beverages across all of the declared markets, but the dairy application is flagging two issues in the same country.
First of all, your proposed amounts are over the in combination limits on additives at your current use level.
And second of all, we identify a claim risk that if the customer targets a no x statement.
You've got a claim risk.
So, Giorgio, how do we fix this?
Yeah, so in this example, everything looks fine for bakery and beverage, but when we check the dairy use in one specific country, so then two problems show up.
The number one, the total additive level is just above the legal combination limit.
And, and then one stabilizer would break a no artificial additive claim and so because food chain ID.
Regulatory intelligence is embedded directly in centric PLM.
The system flags both issues automatically.
Right inside the formulation tool.
And workflow.
So we act early.
Inside Centric.
We adjust the usage rate for dairy to stay within the legal limit, and we replace that ingredient with another already approved on our list that delivers the same performance but keeps the the claim valid, so centric.
Refreshes the compliance status, all markets turn green again.
And the technical data sheets updates by application bakery, dairy, and beverage, and this saves everyone time.
It's a.
If a rule changes later, Centric can run a bulk compliance recheck on the entire product portfolio.
Clients get clear and compliance use guidelines and internally.
Teams and quality regulatory, sales, you name them, they all see the same live truth, what changed, why, and who approved it.
And that's the real value of our joint solution.
It's not just a pass or fail.
Test, it's understanding why teams can explain why the blend is fine for bakery but needs a lower rate for dairy.
And they can point to the regulatory behind it.
That's how you protect both compliance and customer trust.
And regulatory Regulatory team OK, so, as a regulatory attorney, this approach does not bypass, it does not automate regulatory signoff.
What it does is it makes it possible to pull in that regulatory data sooner where you need it.
So, in my experience, regulatory has way too much workload.
We receive everything in too short a notice.
The deadlines are always unrealistic.
OK.
That's just my perspective on life.
This eliminates the easy cases which require no further regulatory work.
So think of the 80/20 Pareto principle.
You've got 80% that are pretty standardized and you're safe with.
They're green, and regulatory can concentrate on the 20% where you really need to do analysis, risk assessment.
So you need to bring in your regulatory earlier with better inputs.
You need to identify the markets and the intended uses declared at the beginning.
Your regulations are mapped to real ingredients, and you have an explainable basis for limits and claims and a traceable history of the changes.
So using a combination of content and tools, most issues can be caught upstream, the common ones, enabling regulatory teams to focus their energy on edge cases, interpretations, and risk decisions.
So again, I want to highlight what I just said.
You want the regulatory team to focus on edge cases, interpreted interpretations, and risk assessments, OK.
So using tools like ours reduces the back and forth and it strengthens greatly your defensibility with auditors and with authorities.
Exactly.
In, in practice, this changes the rhythm of product development.
Teams get fast signals while they work, while they develop, and regulatory team steps in with context rather than firefighting.
So the impact is, is concrete.
So we see fewer late reformulation.
Because boundaries are visible from day one, approvals move faster because specs are clear the first time.
Rework drops.
Because usage rates, , rates are checked as they change and not at the end, and time to market stops slipping because of last minute compliance prices.
And this is why, product developers like the model, it saves cycles.
And why regulatory teams like it because they focus their expertise where it matters.
So In the next couple of of slides, let's keep it brief with who we are, centric and and food chain ID and then we'll make a poll and we'll answer your questions.
So over to you.
OK, thank you.
All right, so, Food chain ID, I'm going to do this in 60 seconds, I promise.
Food Chain ID provides kind of solutions, products, services for the food industry.
We do certification, we do testing, we do digital solutions, and we do Cerra consulting.
So, the piece that I worked in was the regulatory compliance solutions, and there you've Got a regulatory library that literally covers every country in the world not named North Korea.
You've got regulatory assessment, which makes it possible to run your formulations to check them.
You've got regulatory trends, which makes it possible to see what's coming down the pipe, what craziness has come out now in a new state that you can very quickly find out about before it's actually.
Finalized and we have SEra Consulting, scientific and regulatory affairs consulting, where we combine subject matter experts with 30 years of experience together with a research team spread around the world of native speaker researchers who know the governments in the countries they live, and that's the way in which we operate.
And Centric is very proud to collaborate with you and, and in this slide, what you see is what we mean by one platform from brief to shelf.
That's Centric PLM.
Centric streamlines everything from the first idea to suppliers, recipes, manufacturing, packaging, and product launch, and food chain ID regulatory intelligence is built.
Right in the eccentric foundations.
So compliance check run directly on live product data, no extra tools, connection, manual work, and that's how teams catch issues early, fix them fast, and launch products that are inherently compliant from day one.
So I think.
OK.
So, yeah, Georgia, I'll, I'll, I'll grab this one.
So, folks, we're gonna give you a poll.
We're turning to question and answer next, but we're gonna give you 45 seconds to answer this poll.
So, if you're interested in this, please do that now.
Once you've done that, if you haven't put your questions in, please put them in.
Georgio and I love to get questions.
I will tell you, we might run out of time, so we might have to answer some of those questions by email, but please take a couple of seconds.
And answer this and then add any questions that you might have.
All right.
In the meanwhile, I'll check the questions we received.
Some questions and I will answer a few of them.
Still have a couple of minutes.
OK.
Shall we go with the questions, Kevin?
Yep, you read them, I'll answer them, or you read them, you answer them depending on who they're aimed at.
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Let, let me, let me see this.
This one, so, thanks everyone for your, for, for your questions.
We appreciate.
This one is for you, Kevin.
Do you actually cover the countries we sell into?
OK.
Obviously that question came in before I said my last slide, but yes, we do.
We cover every country in the world.
We are not named North Korea.
We cover all jurisdictions for our reg assessment, the data that flows in here.
It is every jurisdiction that is out there, and we.
That very regularly.
We work together with Centric.
We provide you that information, but the bottom line is we can cover any country up to the national level, down as far as some of the state's levels or province levels.
That's what we can offer for you and we can do that pretty much anywhere in the world.
Very good.
The next one, I think, can cover it.
Can suppliers or co-developers participate without seeing everything?
So, yes, OK.
They, they only see what they need to see, specific specs or document is a granular role-based access to the system, so no inbox ping pong, all activity is traceable.
So yes.
The another question is also a common one, and I think it's, more for you, Kevin.
Our ingredient names don't match the official regulation names.
Is that a problem?
OK, it is a common question.
Not a problem at all.
The very first thing that we do when we work together with you is we map your substances via identifiers to our substances.
That can be an iterative process.
We can do a lot of that automatically.
If we've got questions, we go back and forth with your own product team, but that's sorted out and then when you add new ones, we do that similar mapping, but this is something that we can do very effectively.
And we have a lot of experience doing it.
Thank you, Kevin.
We still have 3 minutes to go.
We keep it short.
So this, last, no, this new, this one is also interesting.
If a rule changes mid-project, do we have to recheck everything manually?
No, we also covered these things a few slides ago, and definitely not by hand.
So in centric, we use the where used, functionality, impact analysis.
That means that you can instantly see in which project in which recipe, or specs, the, the, the new rule is, is are affected by the new rule and, and trigger rechecks only, only when needed.
SounD provides the rule change with the rationale.
So that your documentation stays compliant.
And this is, this is the last one, I think, yes, the last one quickly, this one is who you can, where does regulatory fit?
Where does the regulatory team fit?
Are we replacing the sign off?
So again, I think we answered this in the in the actual presentation, but we are not replacing regulatory, we are enabling regulatory.
You're making it possible for regulatory to concentrate on the few cases.
That require expert judgment and you're getting them the information much sooner in the process so that you can eliminate it before you've spent a lot of time, money, and effort developing.
So, this results in faster approvals, faster, fewer loops, less challenges, and better teamwork together.
All right, OK, let's, wrap up.
Thanks everyone for joining.
We hope this session gave you some practical ideas on how to move compliance analysis, compliance check earlier.
And make product development smoother and all the way to, to launch.
You see here on the screen, you can download the joint e-book for a deeper look at the, at the model that we described today or, also book a short demo, live demo where you see how, this solution, work, specifically for your categories, your market.
So both the QR codes are here on the screen.
Also, the recording of this webinar will be available, and if you have any questions that come up later, just email us.
So again, thanks everyone.
Kevin, I will lend it to you for the final word.
Thank you very much.
So, Georgia, pleasure working with you.
I will say guys, we got questions given to us right before the question started.
So if you've put in late questions, we may not have gotten to them.
If we didn't, as I said, we'll send you an email.
But thank you very much for listening.
We very much appreciate your time and if there's something we didn't answer, you can see our emails.
Please feel free to reach out to us directly and we're happy to follow up with you.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
Regional Sales Executive, Centric Software
Senior Advisor, FoodChain ID
Giorgio Buccilli
Regional Sales Executive, Centric Software
Kevin C. Kenny
Senior Advisor, FoodChain ID
