A product repository is a single, shared database that centralizes all data related to a product (composition, regulatory information, packaging, documents) to ensure its reliability and consistency across the entire company. In the food industry, a product repository manages more than 1,000 data points per finished product.
Ingredients, regulatory labeling, Nutri-Score, ingredient origin, packaging recyclability, sorting guidelines, logistics… Food manufacturers must manage an ever-increasing amount of data to meet regulatory and commercial requirements and satisfy consumer expectations. Here’s why and how to structure your product reference system.
What is a product catalog?
The product repository is the company’s single source of truth for all information related to its products. It brings together in a single, structured, and secure location data that was previously scattered across the ERP system, Excel files from the R&D, quality, marketing, and purchasing departments, and supplier documents.
Specifically, a product repository contains: recipes and formulations, raw material data sheets, regulatory data (list of ingredients, allergens, nutritional values), packaging data (composition, recyclability, sorting instructions), supplier certificates and specifications, as well as the history and versions of each piece of data.
More than 1,000 data points characterize a food product, and even more for complex products. Without a structured database, each department has to manually re-enter, copy, and verify the data, with the associated risks of error and non-compliance.
Why do food manufacturers have a particular need for them?
The agri-food sector faces a combination of challenges that few other industries experience:
- Regulatory requirements are becoming increasingly stringent: the INCO regulation for labeling, the AGEC law and the PPWR regulation for packaging and recycling information, and ongoing changes to environmental labeling. Each regulatory change requires companies to retrieve, verify, and update data for hundreds of products.
- Business requirements are increasing: retailers and e-commerce sites expect comprehensive and up-to-date product listings, submitted in their preferred formats and by their deadlines.
- Consumers expect transparency regarding product origins, certifications, Nutri-Score, and environmental impact. This information must be accurate and consistent across all channels: packaging, websites, online catalogs, and curbside pickup.
A reliable product repository is essential for addressing these three challenges without increasing the workload on teams.
Product Catalog, PLM, MDM, PIM: What Are the Differences?
These terms overlap, but they do not refer to the same thing:
| Tool | Role | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Product repository | A single database that centralizes and ensures the reliability of all product data | The core of the company's internal information system: Data Hub |
| PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) | Manages the product lifecycle: design, modification, formulation, industrialization, and updates | Internal: Based on the product specifications |
| MDM (Master Data Management) | Governance of Enterprise Master Data (products, as well as customers, suppliers, etc.) | Internal |
| External PIM / electronic catalogs (Equadis, Alkemics, Akeneo, Agena3000, etc.) | Distribute product sheets to retailers and e-commerce platforms | External — provided by the company |
The distinction between internal PIM and external PIM is explained in detail in our article “PIM or PLM: What Are the Differences, and Which One Should You Choose?”
The Keendoo product catalog serves as internal data hub : it centralizes and ensures the reliability of data at the source, then automatically feeds external systems—including electronic catalogs, GS1 data pools, and e-commerce sites—via REST API connectors. The company no longer has to re-enter its data into each portal; instead, it manages the data internally and distributes it with a single click.
How can you build and maintain your product catalog?
- Collect and Organize: The first step is to consolidate scattered data (ERP systems, Excel spreadsheets, email, and paper documents) into a single database, using a data model tailored to the food industry: ingredients, recipes, bills of materials, packaging, related documents, product sheets, and technical data sheets.
- Collaborating to Ensure Reliability: A reference system is only effective if every department contributes to it at its own level: R&D on ingredient lists, Quality on regulatory compliance, Purchasing on supplier data, and Marketing on product descriptions and packaging. Validation workflows ensure that each piece of data is verified by the right person, at the right time, before it is released.
- Historical Tracking and Version Control: Every change is tracked: who changed what, when, and why. Successive versions of recipes and labeling remain accessible—a decisive advantage in the event of an audit (IFS, certifications, etc.) or crisis management (in the event of a health alert, for example).
- Distributing Validated Data: Once validated, the data is used for all purposes—labeling, technical data sheets, distributor catalogs (external PIM), and score calculations—without the need for re-entry, thereby eliminating discrepancies.
With Quick Start PLM, small and medium-sized food and beverage companies have access to a product repository preconfigured for their industry, up and running in 3 days, and natively integrated with the VIF ERP. For over 10 years, Keendoo has been helping some 50 food and beverage manufacturers organize their product data.
FAQ — Product Catalog
A product repository is a single, shared database that centralizes all information about a product: ingredients, regulatory and nutritional data, packaging, and related documents. It ensures that all departments within the company work with reliable, up-to-date, and consistent data.
The product repository is an internal data hub: it centralizes and ensures the reliability of data at the source, within the company. Electronic catalog PIMs (Equadis, Alkemics, Akeneo, Agena3000, etc.) are external systems that distribute product listings to retailers. The internal repository feeds these external systems via API connectors.
It contains more than 1,000 data points per product: recipes and formulations, ingredients and allergens, nutritional values, regulatory labeling (INCO), packaging and recyclability data (AGEC, PPWR), supplier certificates, technical data sheets, history, and versions.
With a preconfigured solution for the food and beverage industry, such as Keendoo’s Quick Start PLM, the product repository is up and running in 3 days, featuring a ready-to-use business data model and a native interface withthe VIF ERP system.
