October 2008: Produce Traceability Initiative Action Plan Released
Lays a Pathway to Creating New Value for Produce Business
On October 14, the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) announced the release of the Produce Traceability Initiative Action Plan, the much-anticipated roadmap to a common standard for external traceability by the end of 2012. Spearheaded by the Produce Marketing Association, United Fresh Produce Association and Canadian Produce Marketing Association, the plan involves adopting a GS1 standard system of case bar-coding for all produce sold in the United States and allow product to be tracked throughout the distribution chain.
The Produce Traceability Initiative Action Plan outlines five milestones to be met by the industry in order to achieve electronic traceability by late 2012:
- Brand owners obtain GS1-issued company prefixes by Q1 2009
- Assign 14-digit Global Trade Item Numbers to every case configuration they pack; and provide those GTINs to their buyers by third quarter 2009;
- By third quarter 2010, brand owners will begin placing GTIN and lot numbers on case labels in human readable form and as machine readable GS1 bar codes;
- Subsequent handlers scan and store the GTIN and lot number on inbound cases in 2011;
- Subsequent handlers can scan and store the GTIN and lot number on outbound cases in 2012.
To help the industry effectively comply with the final published guidelines, YottaMark announced two new versions of its HarvestMark®: fresh food traceability solution this week: HarvestMark for PTI, which supports the case-level traceability requirements of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI); and HarvestMark Enhanced PTI, which adds extended trace-forward capabilities along with quality and cold chain management to basic PTI compliance.
The Produce Traceability Action Plan is a critical milestone for the industry and lays a pathway to build and position traceability as not just a system to activate in the event of a recall but a value-creating business tool that can help improve operational efficiencies, enhance communication and increase trust in brands.