The Benefits of Traceability

When one thinks of traceability, the first thing that comes to mind is often produce traceability. However, traceability isn’t just for the produce and agriculture industries – it can be implemented into many other fields including electronics, meat & dairy, toys and so much more.

There are a number of reasons to implement traceability and transparency in your business and your product lines regardless of industry or product type. Here are just a few.

1. Customer Trust and Loyalty – Traceability and transparency are important steps to take to gain the trust of consumers.  They are effective ways to communicate safety and quality to the consumer, and as a result, traceability has been increasingly demanded for by consumers.

The greatest way to gain new customers and retain your current customer base is by gaining their trust; the simplest way to gain a customer’s trust is transparency (honesty).

2. Protect the Innocent – When problems occur and recalls become necessary, businesses suffer. By implementing traceability, those that are unaffected can continue to sell their products. Traceability expedites the problem-solving process involved in contamination cases and allows issues to be quickly contained and resolved with minimal collateral damage. With traceability, product categories are able to maintain their availability rather than being completely destroyed.  Traceability allows businesses to show customers that their products are unaffected and safe.

3. Improve business – In a survey by Yottamark, 85% of consumers stated that they prefer to purchase traceable food over non-traceable. In conclusion, if you products are up against traceable competitive products, you may lose out on business.

4. Protect public health and safety.

5. Vendors that offer traceability have a significant advantage over those who do not. Many fast food chains, superstores, restaurants, et al. require traceability from vendors as the result of perceived risk. Therefore, vendors that offer traceability are more likely to win business than those who do not.

6. Real-time traceability quickly pays for itself. Demonstrating compliance and real-time traceability can expand a company’s customer base and enables the company to go completely paperless seamlessly. By eliminating a timely and costly paper-based system, productivity and efficiency increase through decreased labor requirements, improved inventory control and many other benefits. In the case of a contamination incident, traceability lowers the cost of containing and resolving the issue.

Related Articles

• The Produce Traceability Initiative
• How is ePedigree like PTI?
• The Benefits of Traceability

How is ePedigree like PTI?

With the ever present threat of counterfeit prescription drugs intermingling with legitimate drug supplies in the US, California has implemented the ePedigree Law to fight the 34 million counterfeit medicines being used to fill prescriptions (estimate from 2006). The ePedigree Law is not unlike the Produce Traceability Initiative and it shows that maintaining electronic records of a product’s lineage can effectively be maintained using barcode technology.

The ePedigree initiative, much like PTI, was instated to protect the health of consumers and track/monitor products to ensure that unsafe items do not end up in the marketplace, and in the chance that they do, recalls can be made quickly and efficiently without significant financial loss to those involved in the recall.

Like PTI, ePedigree is still in the “adoption phase,” but it is several years into that phase whereas PTI is only just beginning.  The ePedigree legislation was first introduced in 2004 to prevent counterfeit medicine from entering the supply chain and 2009 was set to be the when the law would be fully implemented, but legal and technical issues have delayed this.  EPedigree is now set to go into full effect in 2015.

In summary, ePedigree prohibits the selling, trading, and transferring of prescription drugs by manufacturers, wholesalers, repackagers, pharmacies, and others involved in the supply chain without a pedigree. The pedigree is “a record in electronic form containing information regarding each transaction resulting in  a change of ownership of the given prescription drug, including returns.” This information is stored at the unit-level (like PTI which information is stored at the case-level), meaning each individual container has its own set of information stored and that information, or electronic pedigree, “will at all times accompany that particular container.”

By using a 2D barcode or RFID chip, electronic records can be kept showing the lineage of the drug from the manufacturer all the way to the distribution channel.  Like PTI, one of the issues facing ePedigree is interoperability and consistency across manufacturers and other channels. All parties involved in the supply chain need to have access to the pedigree information without the purchase of numerous types of hardware, software, etc. to read whatever format manufacturers choose for their electronic pedigree (California law does not state a required format – RFID or 2D barcode).  As a result, one of the requirements of ePedigree is interoperability in the hopes that systems do not become too diverse and complex. In 2007 EPCIS standard was adopted to encourage consistent creation and appending of a pedigree.

The pedigree contains the origin of the drug including the name, federal manufacturer’s registration or license number, and principle address, the trade or generic name of the drug, the quantity, its dosage form and strength, the date of the transaction, the sales invoice number, the container size, the number of containers, the expiration dates, the lot numbers, the business name, address and federal manufacturer’s registration, and a certification that the information contained in the pedigree is “true and accurate.” It must also contain information on any changes in packaging so that the product can always be traced back to the original manufacturer.

Much of this same information is required as part of PTI – the origin of the produce, its lot number and the business it originated with, any changes in packaging at a packaging plant, and through which hands it passed before ending up with the consumer, along with other information.  In both cases, “best practices” have developed allowing companies to implement the most “consistent” labeling and information storing possible to ease the movement of the product through the supply chain and to facilitate the appending of information following the product on its journey to the consumer.

Related Posts

• The Produce Traceability Initiative

The Produce Traceability Initiative

An example of a PTI label from the PTI website

PTI requirements and solutions are becoming frequent topics of conversation in the produce industry, but this initiative has yet to be fully adopted due to hesitation regarding cost and the potential complexity attached to meeting the PTI requirements. In this article, I summarize what the Produce Traceability Initiative is, how it is implemented and the benefits of converting to this system of inventory management.

What is the Produce Traceability Initiative, otherwise known as PTI?

The Produce Traceability Initiative is a voluntary effort on the part of those in the produce industry to improve their traceability capabilities. As a result of these improvements, “suspect product” can quickly be removed from the marketplace while limiting the impact of the recall on other suppliers and products. Produce traceability has been a topic of conversation since the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930 which introduced the foundation for produce traceability. The more recent Bioterrorism Act of 2002 introduced the “one step up and one step back” traceability requirements to the produce industries.

How can PTI be implemented?

Simply put, PTI standardizes data collection and processing across the supply chain. With standardized barcodes (pictured above), packers, repackers, wholesalers, distribution centers, retailers and food service providers can better track and monitor the produce that they handle. The PTI barcode solution creates a coding system that can be read by each company across the supply chain, simplifying communication of information.  These barcodes include a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) to identify the manufacturer and product contained within the case and a lot number to identify the lot the produce originated from. This information is displayed on the case containing the produce in both human-readable form and machine-readable (see above photograph).

PTI Solutions are implemented at the case level rather than at the individual product level for a number of reasons. By labeling produce by the case, traceability is not only more affordable but more effective and efficient.

What are the benefits of implementing PTI labeling?

• Companies earn the confidence of the government and consumers
• Limits the scope and cost of food recalls
• Investigations become more efficient and less costly
• More consistency in regards to communication of product information across the supply chain
• Speeds up delivery of orders to retailers and distributors
• Can measurably improve operational efficiency
• Protects public health
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Complies with FDA mandates

What would be the most effective way to implement the Produce Traceability Initiative?

The most effective, efficient and affordable way to implement the Produce Traceability Initiative would be to utilize mobile computing and printing technology.  With mobile barcode scanners and printers, workers can print labels at the point of application ensuring accuracy and limiting wasted materials.

Let us help you develop your food traceability solution drawing from our comprehensive catalog of technologies including mobile and stationary computers and printers. Our team is trained to help you create a customized solution that can easily be integrated into your existing infrastructure.

For more information on the Produce Traceability Initiative, visit their official web site.

Related Articles:

• How is ePedigree like PTI?