The global supply chain landscape is under a microscope like never before. Recent investigations have exposed alarming human rights violations in food production, particularly in tomato processing facilities. Many products marketed as containing Italian tomatoes were, in fact, grown and harvested in China using forced labour.
As a business owner, you know that consumer trust is everything – without it, even the strongest brand can crumble.
But ensuring ethical sourcing isn’t just about avoiding PR nightmares. It’s about long-term sustainability, risk management, and staying ahead of tightening regulations.
Today’s consumers, investors, and regulators expect transparency, and businesses that fail to deliver will be left behind.
If you don’t know exactly where your tomatoes come from, or whether your suppliers are engaging in unethical labour practices, you could be exposing your business to significant financial and reputational risk.
So how can you ensure your supply chain meets ethical standards while staying competitive? The answer lies in supply chain transparency technology.
Identifying forced labour risks in global supply chains
Unfortunately, forced labour is still found in multiple industries today, from agriculture and textiles to electronics and automotive manufacturing.
Many businesses rely on complex, multi-tiered supply chains to complete their daily operations, making it difficult to trace where products originate and under what conditions they are produced.
This lack of visibility leaves companies vulnerable to hidden labour abuses, regulatory non-compliance, and reputational damage.
Beyond ethical considerations, non-compliance with emerging regulation – such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and stringent ESG reporting requirements – poses financial and reputational risks.
Companies need to act proactively to protect their brand and align with net zero emissions by 2050 goals by considering not only human rights but also their broader environmental and social impact.
Supply chain transparency for ethical sourcing
At Authenticate, we engineer innovative supply chain transparency technology to help businesses mitigate forced labour risks while enhancing sustainability and compliance efforts.
Here’s how we do it:
Supply chain mapping
Understanding where your products come from is the first step in ensuring ethical sourcing. Our supply chain mapping tool gives you complete transparency, tracking suppliers back to their source.
With automated location reports, businesses can quickly identify suppliers in high-risk regions, helping them make informed sourcing decisions and avoid unethical labour practices.
Understanding where your products come from is the first step in ensuring ethical sourcing. Our supply chain mapping tool gives you complete transparency, tracking suppliers back to their source.
With automated location reports, businesses can quickly identify suppliers in high-risk regions, helping them make informed sourcing decisions and avoid unethical labour practices.
Audits & assessments
Maintaining ethical standards across your supply chain requires continuous oversight.
With audits & assessments, businesses can deploy risk assessments and compliance checks to suppliers. Real-time benchmarking and performance tracking ensure that companies stay ahead of regulatory requirements while upholding ethical labour practices.
Certifications
Staying compliant with ethical and sustainability standards can be complex, but Authenticate makes it easier.
Our supplier certifications tool automates supplier assurance checks against key schemes such as Sedex and Global GAP, helping you and your business to maintain the highest ethical standards.
Documents
Managing compliance documents efficiently is non-negotiable for any business.
With Authenticate, our document management feature allows companies to securely store and share modern slavery policies, worker welfare documentation, and supplier codes of conduct. This helps to ensure that ethical commitments are upheld across the entire supply chain.
ESGnius
For a deeper understanding of social risks, ESGnius offers invaluable ESG score analysis with comprehensive social, environmental, and governance data. This allows businesses to align their supply chain operations with broader sustainability and governance initiatives while making better-informed decisions.
Dashboards
The Authenticate dashboard & analytics tool combines supplier and product data gathered within other modules and overlays this with third-party data sources to provide a clear picture of forced labour risks.
The importance of ethical & transparent supply chains
Retailers, manufacturers, and food brands must take action to ensure that their products are ethically sourced.
A transparent supply chain doesn’t just help to fight modern slavery, it also supports broader sustainability efforts.
By investing in transparency solutions, businesses can protect their brand, meet compliance requirements, and contribute to a more ethical, sustainable future.
Ethical & sustainable supply chains with Authenticate
Every business should be taking proactive steps to secure their supply chains.
With Authenticate’s supply chain transparency solutions, you can efficiently reduce forced labour risks, enhance ESG performance, and strengthen consumer trust.
Trust in your supply chains with transparency technology.
Contact us at Authenticate to book a free product demo or learn how we can help you safeguard ethical and sustainable sourcing efforts.