Ensuring Data Accuracy Across the Foodservice Supply Chain

From fulfilling complex orders correctly to providing accurate allergen information for customer safety, every part of the foodservice supply chain depends on precise data. When this information is inconsistent, the consequences can range from operational slowdowns to a considerable loss of trust with trading partners. For this reason, building a strategy around data accuracy is essential for competitive brands and manufacturers.

The Modern Foodservice Landscape

When we talk about foodservice data, we are referring to the comprehensive set of product information required by the industry. This includes, but is not limited to, detailed nutritional facts, ingredient lists, allergen disclosures, sourcing information, traceability data, logistics, and pricing, all of which must be shared accurately between manufacturers, distributors, and operators.

Today’s foodservice environment is marked by the demand for data accuracy, transparency, and communication –– both by consumers and between brands and trading partners. These data challenges, combined with supply chain pressures, disrupt foodservice data management, putting brands and retailers at a competitive disadvantage.

The growing importance of digital menus, nutrition data, sourcing and traceability information, allergen disclosures, and compliance has reshaped data demands across every stage of the foodservice supply chain. An increased reliance on centralized product data across manufacturers, distributors, and operators requires solutions for end-to-end data management that ensure data accuracy throughout the supply chain.

Why is Data Accuracy Critical in Foodservice?

The increased demand for more product information, especially when it comes to food safety, is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a “need-to-have.”

Inaccuracies in foodservice data erode confidence across the supply chain. Common challenges in foodservice data management include:

• Data silos between manufacturers, distributors, and operators
• Inconsistent content and data standards.
• Frequent updates (e.g., new packaging, reformulations) that must be tracked and communicated
• Ensuring accurate, consistent, up-to-date allergen and nutritional information 
• Difficulty aligning product data with e-commerce, POS systems, and digital ordering platforms

From basic compliance to food safety, quality data is non-negotiable. Fewer errors and inconsistencies in product data translate to fewer errors in orders, resulting in a faster time to market, more accurate forecasting, and a better customer experience when end users –– from individual customers to commercial clients –– get the right product information.

What Are the Best Practices for Managing Foodservice Data?

Centralized, standardized, and automated data management not only enhances product data but also streamlines the foodservice supply chain. Because data and content quality matter for every product and every listing at every step of the supply chain, brands must prioritize data accuracy. The best ways to streamline data and ensure quality include:

• Adopting a single source of truth for product data and content 
• Automating foodservice product data updates and syndication 
• Ensuring cross-functional team alignment 

Implementing a data management system helps foodservice organizations keep their data in one place, update and distribute it seamlessly and consistently, and help maintain data unity among their teams.

How 1WorldSync Enables Accurate and Streamlined Foodservice Data Management

Foodservice brands, manufacturers, and distributors face unique challenges (and opportunities) with the increasing demand for data accuracy and transparency. By partnering with 1WorldSync, businesses can take full advantage of their product data to engage more, sell more, and take hold of market share.

1WorldSync’s platform provides foodservice-specific capabilities to ensure your data is accurate, complete, transparent, and up-to-date everywhere you sell. This includes:

• Content Syndication –  Validate and publish your content to a global network of recipients instantly through 1WorldSync’s leading GDSN data pool and SaaS platform.

• Leading Foodservice Photography – Whether you sell boxed, raw, or fully prepared food, get impactful, high-quality GS1-compliant imagery within your desired budget and timeline.

• Product Information Management – Integrate with your ERP and manage cross-departmental workflows with our Product Information Management (PIM) tool.

• Digital Asset Management – Manually updating and managing content wastes time and leaves room for errors that erode trust and increase costs. Our Digital Asset Management tool works in tandem with our content services to ensure that accurate content is placed in the correct location, empowering you to manage, upload, and tailor your assets for a wide range of digital scenarios. You’ll both reduce workloads and increase the speed and accuracy of your product updates.

Learn more about 1WorldSync Commerce Suite, our all-in-one solution to unify your product content strategy across multiple teams.

Real World Success: The Seaboard Foods Case Study 

Headquartered in Oklahoma, Seaboard Foods is the second-largest pork producer in the U.S. The company partnered with 1WorldSync to position itself as an industry leader capable of meeting the evolving demands of retail and global commerce. 

Seaboard Food’s goals: 

• Better optimize product content processes 
• Reduce manual, time-consuming data capture workflows 
• Meet changing retailer data requirements

1WorldSync provided the following solutions: 

• Image Capture – 1WorldSync’s product photography and imagery services provided Seaboard Foods with affordable, e-commerce-ready product images, including 360-degree spin imagery, hero images, and compliant image sets. 
• GDSN Syndication – Our data pool offers the flexibility in JSON, XML, and API formatting required to meet the needs of companies and their global trading partners, seamlessly and automatically. This enabled Seaboard Foods to expand its customer base while ensuring accurate and reliable product content in every market. 
• Data Loading & Maintenance (DLM) – Our DLM service enables brand partners like Seaboard Foods to focus on the core functions of their business by taking care of their product information and synchronization processes. Our team of data experts formats, loads, and publishes brand product data quickly and accurately, increasing the efficiency of data syndication to retailer trading partners.

The results: 

• Accelerated data review readiness, product information publication, and retailer syndication by reducing the data loading process to one day
  
• Reached 100% USDA and GS1-compliant product packaging representation
  
• Increased efficiencies to just 2.5 months to complete the image capture and upload project, resulting in significant time savings

Here’s what Leah Saragusa, Labeling Compliance & Digital Content Manager, Seaboard Foods, had to say about their partnership with 1WorldSync: 

“Having 1WorldSync upload our cooked-and-plated product lifestyle images was not only a huge time savings for us but also provided our trading partners with the imaging they required in a way that was efficient, effective, and met GS1 standards… What Seaboard looks for from 1WorldSync is that full-service, integrated, one-stop shop to work with as a partner to find those gaps, solve them, and get our manual processes validated and perfected, to where I can get accurate product data and images syndicated to Seaboard’s many trading partners.”

Conclusion

To win new retail partnerships and compete effectively in this market, a mastery of your data is crucial. This means viewing your current data processes not as a static system, but as a dynamic asset that needs strategic oversight. The data management platform you choose is therefore a critical strategic decision, foundational to ensuring accuracy and quality across your entire operation. 1WorldSync is designed to be that strategic advantage.

Partner with 1WorldSync to simplify your foodservice data management and stay ahead. Connect with our team today to learn more about our full-service data solutions that empower foodservice professionals with the right tools to move their organizations forward.