A familiar product. An unfamiliar supply chain.
A bar of soap brings together vegetable oils, sugar-derived ingredients and a paper carton. Behind each is a different set of suppliers, places and people. How much of that story reaches your buying team?
Aseri helps FMCG brands, manufacturers and retailers connect everyday products to the human rights and environmental questions behind them.
Inside an everyday product
- Vegetable oils
- Palm · Indonesia
- Ingredient supplier → refinery → grower
- Sugar-derived ingredients
- Sugar · Mexico
- Ingredient supplier → processor → farm
Which producers sit behind the blend, and whose working conditions can you see?
Fictional product and sourcing relationships. These examples are questions to investigate, not risk ratings.
Different suppliers.
The same source?
A long supplier list can conceal a narrow sourcing base. Several ingredients may pass through the same processor, trader or growing region. A change upstream can affect more of your portfolio than your tier 1 records reveal.
Start with raw-material screening. Commodity, Country and Industry Risk Intelligence helps frame the questions for each material and sourcing location. Where conflict or instability is relevant, continually updated national and sub-national CAHRA intelligence adds context for a closer enquiry. Neither replaces evidence about a particular supplier.
Supply Chain Mapping Platform tool coming soon
The planned one-click tool will start with an upload of tier 1 suppliers to map upstream relationships. Today, Aseri’s specialists can help you investigate gaps in the sourcing picture.
A useful starting point for a crowded portfolio.
Category teams serving UK and European markets often buy globally, with limited time for each supplier. Start a review with a defined category and the purchasing decision ahead of you.
Bring your ingredient specifications, packaging composition and supplier list. Add known production sites and the dates of existing assessments. Mark missing origins explicitly. Group products that share an input or processor so one enquiry can inform several buying teams.
- Raw material
- Establish the source Request the material identity and reported origin, with records connecting the supplier to the producer. A blend may need more than one origin enquiry.
- Set the research question Compare commodity and location context. Record which upstream relationships remain unconfirmed before choosing a supplier to engage.
- Processing
- Understand the activity Identify where refining, conversion or finishing happens. Check whether the assessment supplied covers that activity and the relevant period.
- Check shared dependencies A processor serving several direct suppliers may warrant a coordinated enquiry. Agree who asks the questions and shares the findings.
- Production site
- Match evidence to the facility Confirm the site address and workforce covered by an audit. Check agency labour and subcontracted production against its scope.
- Choose the follow-up Identify what needs clarification in records and what needs worker engagement or on-site assessment. Give each request an owner.
Aseri’s analysts can help investigate the gaps. The review should leave buyers with a short priority list, the evidence behind it and a clear reason for the next supplier conversation.
The recipe changes. What needs checking again?
Imagine the soap manufacturer proposes a different vegetable-oil blend while the brand refreshes its carton. The direct suppliers stay the same. The upstream sources may have changed.
Fictional product-change scenario. These are suggested enquiries, not findings about a supplier.
Ask what moved
Compare the old and proposed specifications. Ask whether the oil producer or refinery changed, and whether the carton still uses the same mill and fibre source. Record unanswered questions separately.
Scope the conversation
Ask the ingredient and packaging suppliers for evidence of the changed relationships. Check which other products use those sources. Where an assessment is needed, brief the auditor on the specific process, workforce and unresolved concern.
Return to the buying decision
Agree what evidence the category owner needs before deciding on the change. Our consulting team can help define escalation and follow-up responsibilities, including when a sourcing change should trigger another review.
Follow the question to the facility.
A sourcing signal becomes useful when it changes what you ask a supplier, and what you check on the ground.
Our risk intelligence specialists turn research into supplier priorities. Through audits and assessments , we examine traceability records, recruitment, working hours and chemical safety. Farmer engagement and worker voice help test what paperwork cannot explain. Environmental questions may concern land use, water, agrochemicals or mill effluent, depending on the material and location.
Aseri’s audit tools are available now. Automated AI audit review and bespoke risk-led questions support expert assessment; auditor assignment and progress monitoring help teams coordinate delivery across suppliers and facilities.
Give the buying team a next move.
Due diligence has to survive the next product launch, supplier change and purchasing deadline.
Build your programme with AseriOur consulting team helps translate findings into decisions buyers can repeat. Human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) explore impacts in depth where needed, with attention to workers, smallholder farmers and affected communities.
- Ask suppliers for evidence. Set proportionate requests, agree corrective actions and follow up on what changes.
- Make concerns actionable. Connect responsible sourcing policies to practical procedures and grievance mechanisms people can use safely.
- Build procurement confidence. Train sourcing and internal audit teams to recognise concerns, escalate them and support supplier improvement.
Know what sits behind your next order.
Bring us a product category, an ingredient portfolio or a supplier question. We’ll help you decide where to look and what to do next.