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26 MARCH 2015 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com George Gansner, director of marketing and business development at IFS, says the GFSI standards are comparable to proposed FSMA safety standards. "That (IFS) certification indi- cates that storage, warehousing and transporta- tion companies and facilities are doing what they're supposed to do to ensure the product is safe," he says. "Certification says you have the processes in place." Food companies have numerous tools avail- able to meet food safety goals. Traceability systems require hardware and software, and the best solution will vary based on a user's needs. Because data must be gathered quickly and easily as to not interfere with production effi- ciency, experts note that food production pro- cesses will benefit from a certain level of auto- mation to support a reliable traceability report- ing. "Given the increasingly tight recall windows imposed by today's leading retailers, traceability is something very difficult to do without auto- mation," says Wayne Slater, director of sales and marketing at Carlisle Technology. To have reliable data, he says a company must implement a system that adheres to the three blocks of traceability: 1) backward trace- ability (knowing who you bought your input from; 2) forward traceability (knowing who you sold your finished goods to); and 3) process traceability (knowing the detailed composition of the product you prepared.) Process traceability involves the ability to 1) identify product, 2) capture and track move- ment information, 3) associate the product with the finished good, and 4) know where it got shipped. Traceability can be elusive if the system is not be able to identify clearly and quickly the specific origin or genealogy of the raw materials, ingredients, and packaging materials contained in that case by lot number, date received, and supplier, Slater says. Traceability tools improve In addition to the standard GS1 barcode, companies are using QR codes as a secondary barcode for automated product tracking on in-motion conveyor systems, or even marketing reasons, Slater notes. By using QR barcodes, a traceability link can be established between the product and the shipping carton, order, inventory, and produc- tion occurrence. This allows full traceability of the product to the production lot, and in some cases, to the individual carcass and producer. RFID tags are another tool in the traceability arsenal. RFID tags use radio waves instead of barcodes to uniquely identify the tags. RFID readers can be used in situations where optical scanning by barcodes isn't possible. Some companies are reluctant to invest in traceability technology while certain regulations, such as the FSMA's record keeping rules, are not yet finalized. To this concern, experts such as Ed Treacy, liaison between the Produce Traceability Initiative and the FDA, says compliance with standards such as PTI will most likely exceed what the government requires. Carlisle Technology's Slater points to the instance of a Canadian meat processor that invested in traceability software even though the company never experienced a recall. When a product tested positive for listeria after the software was installed, the company was able to leverage the recall reporting tools within their automated solution to isolate the product and complete the necessary recall communications in approximately 45 minutes. In addition, the meat processor has gained business with new retailers not only because of their products but also because of the benefits the traceability sys- tem provides, he notes. Redline Solution's Golsch points to a shipper that had less foresight. Because the company could not determine where in the supply chain it's contaminated product had shipped, they had to recall all their product from customers, losing six weeks of production. "They didn't have the data to know where the product had gone, so they had to pull everything," she says. Temperature monitoring and traceability Temperature monitoring increasingly works in tandem with traceability in the supply chain. "Based on the proposed (FSMA sanitary transport) rule, we can expect requirements for expanded temperature monitoring during trans- portation and new responsibilities for shippers in specifying transit temperature and in-transit temperature performance recordkeeping," says Jeff Leshuk, president of Sensitech Inc., the Beverly, Mass.-based temperature monitoring solutions provider. Leshuk notes that temperature monitoring is not synonymous with traceability. Temperature monitoring is simply measuring and record- ing temperature in a particular location and recording it over time. Traceability refers to the ability to follow the movement of food prod- ucts at item or case level through production, processing and distribution, both forward and backward. "It involves recording critical tracking events such as harvest or production, packing, aggregation, disaggregation, commingle, receipt, shipping, etc. It also involves recording key data elements such as item ID, location ID for event, date and time of event." Technology providers continue to offer trace- ability and temperature monitoring tools. Nogales, Ariz.-based organic fruit and veg- etable producer Wholesum Family Farms, Inc. recently deployed the LINKFRESH ERP to establish common practices, standards, and systems across four sites in the U.S. and Mexico. The system allows the company to trace a case or a pallet anywhere in the supply chain in the POTENTIAL PATHWAY OF PRODUCE TO RETAIL STORES Onset's data logger measures and transmits temperature and humidity data wirelessly to mobile devices via Bluetooth Smart technology. The Institute for Food Technologists illustrates the complex path produce can follow in the supply chain, demonstrating the need for a robust traceability system. Fields #1 - 3 Fields #4 - 6 Transport to Packing Line Transport to Packing Line Transport to Packing Line Repacker Outbound Transportation Outbound Transportation Outbound Transportation Packing Line #1 Packing Line #2 Shippers Warehouse Retail Distribution Center Retail Distribution Center Distributor Distributor Stores Stores Repacker Fields #7 - 9