Posts from the "Traceability" category
“So, why don’t we have a food safety regulation for Australian growers?” asks Richard Bennett
I haven’t found many growers who like regulation. The very thought of another regulation conjures up responses around more red or green tape, if it has to be regulated then it must be something I wouldn’t do voluntarily, it can’t have any commercial benefit, more bureaucracy wanting more of my…
New food safety & technology post by Richard Bennett on the PMA A-NZ Blog. Click here to view the full post.
Image credit: Carl Clifford/Flickr, CC BY 2.0
The #1 reason we bother with food safety? Because consumers demand it!, writes Richard Bennett
Consumers rank food safety at the supermarket as number 1. As suppliers, we often don’t give food safety the profile in our businesses that reflects this ranking, probably because we are focussed on price and quality. Consumers take a long time to forgive a food safety incident, which is why we must be so diligent to get food safety right.
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Institute of Food Technologists Launches Global Food Traceability Center
The Global Food Traceability Center will serve all aspects of the food system by generating knowledge that addresses research gaps, and delivering applied research, objective advice, and practical expertise about food product traceability and data collaboration for private benefit and public good.
Through its work, the Center will provide the means to accelerate the adoption and implementation of practical traceability solutions across the global food system. It will also deliver support services that help to increase understanding of food traceability across the following business platforms:
Research
Protocols and Standards
Education and Training
Technology Transfer
To find out more, click here.
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Traceability set to improve with the GS1 DataBar
GS1 have launched the new GS1 DataBar, to be implemented globally from January 2014.
This in an important development and will impact retailers both locally and internationally.
The GS1 DataBar is a family of seven barcodes, four of which can be read by omnidirectional scanners at Point-of-Sale. The smaller size will provide several advantages to anyone working in the supply chain and specifically for the fresh produce industry, allowing products that have not been previously barcoded to be quickly and accurately scanned at Point-of-Sale. The benefits of the new GS1 DataBar include:
• Improved Traceability – with more information input into the barcodes
• Enhanced and wider category management
• Product authentication
• Global variable measure product identification
• Increased shrink control through more effective markdown management
As an example, the GS1 DataBar provides for the automated markdown of products approaching expiry date. This saves time and resources in manual markdown and gives retailers the scope to improve product rotation and eliminate non-sales from expired products.
This will increase the level of confidence in the safety of fresh produce and aligns with goals of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI).
Furthermore, the long-anticipated report produced for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) (report), was recently released and fits also with the PTI and the developments GS1 are making for traceability of fresh Produce. The recommendations in the IFT report including: encouraging current industry-led initiatives, not excluding commodities; accepting electronic traceability data/records during product tracing investigations; and requiring all organizations that handle food in the supply chain to identify and maintain records of traceability related information.
It is recommended that anyone working in the supply chain, no matter what size, understand the GS1 DataBar.
For more information on the GS1 DataBar, download the brochure.