<FONT color=blue>[QA Web Extra]:</FONT> 7 Milestones for Produce Traceability Initiative Compliance

Read more about Global Traceability in the July/August issue of QA.

As to industry rollout of the Produce Traceability Initiative, the steering committee has identified the milestones required to make it happen, and in July was developing the timeline for implementation, said Gary Fleming, vice president of industry technology and standards for the Produce Marketing Association.

The seven milestones which every organization in the supply chain would need to implement are:

1. Request a company prefix from GS1 which, like a social security number, is specific and individual to that company.
2. Assign Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) to all case configurations.
3. Communicate these numbers so the 14-digit numbers are understood by all that company’s buyers.
4. Implement an electronic system which can capture and store the GTIN and the three key pieces of information (lot number, packer and harvest data).
5. Provide these same three identifiers in human-readable form.
6. Ensure that this same information is automatically recorded into each bar code.
7. Be able to read and store information from all your suppliers and buyers one forward, one back.