FoodLogiQ Achieves Food Traceability Milestone, Capturing Over 50 Million Critical Tracking Events on the Connect Platform
FoodLogiQ sees one hundred percent growth in critical event data captured on the Connect Platform in 2020. Learn more about FoodLogiQ’s connected supply chain and the power of tech-enabled traceability.
FoodLogiQ is thrilled to announce that we have captured over 50 Million Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) on the FoodLogiQ Connect platform, a major milestone in achieving a connected food chain fueled by supply chain digitization at scale.
The number of Critical Tracking Events within FoodLogiQ Connect has doubled since the end of 2019, when FoodLogiQ reported nearly 26 million Critical Tracking Events on the platform. Additional statistics paint an even more vivid picture of how the platform is realizing a connected food chain, with over 520,000 quality incidents detected and over 260,000 supplier documents processed, across more than 130,000 locations globally. With the number of new events captured increasing by over three million events month-over-month in November alone, the FoodLogiQ community has become a central player in establishing farm-to-fork traceability within the food system.
This achievement follows heightened focus on what constitutes a Critical Tracking Event, largely thanks to proposed updates to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) section 204 rule. The proposed traceability rule enhancements, which were released this fall, are set to lay a foundation for standardized data elements that need to be captured and recorded at various Critical Tracking Events, from growing to shipping, transforming, receiving and more. FDA public meetings on the proposed rule were held digitally in November and December, and have drawn significant attention to the importance of executing a mature, digital traceability program.
“Implementing digitized traceability programs allows companies to have this data at their fingertips, reducing the time it takes to investigate issues from days or even weeks...down to seconds.” FoodLogiQ Vice President of Supply Chain Strategy and Insights Julie McGill noted at the public meeting held on November 18th, “10 years ago we participated in the first round of FDA traceability pilots, and we are thrilled to see this next step taken for the industry. Consumer safety is our utmost concern and we are confident that food companies can adopt processes and interoperable technologies to make end-to-end traceability across the food chain a reality.”
FoodLogiQ has been a stakeholder in important traceability pilots that have continued to push traceability forward since, including a recent interoperability pilot conducted with a number of other service providers including IBM, ripe.io and SAP. These pilot projects ensure the millions of events held in the FoodLogiQ Connect platform will be able to be connected to other digital endpoints within the food system securely, extending the reach and utility of the data being captured. Connecting large data hubs for Critical Tracking Events like FoodLogiQ Connect to other technology providers will be pivotal for seeing more advanced food safety benefits in the years to come.
As industry understanding surrounding the power of data and transparency increases, regulatory bodies like the FDA, USDA, CFIA and EFSA are also increasingly speaking to the broader benefits of technology adoption and supply chain digitization. This holistic viewpoint is threaded throughout the FDA’s latest forward-looking initiative, the New Era of Smarter Food Safety. While the use of traceability technology is not required in the proposed traceability rule, tech-enabled traceability is an explicit cornerstone of the New Era initiative. The agency has stated it will explore public-private “data trusts” as part of their work, and sees technology as an integral part of the agency’s future, in addition to the future of food safety. The initiative paints an ambitious picture for the future of the food system, one that will be built through coordinated advancement at all levels of the supply chain.
“Traceability as a concept stands for transparency, communication, visibility, safety and for the future of food. But, in practice, food traceability is only as good as the data we capture, store and share. It’s like an image made of millions of pixels,” said FoodLogiQ Chief Operating Officer Katy Jones, “Without enough pixels, your resolution will be too low to see clearly. With every Critical Tracking Event we capture, we are increasing our traceability resolution. At FoodLogiQ, we’re proud to partner with companies to visualize the events taking place throughout the food system at scale, to provide a clear and actionable image. As we surpass 50 Million Critical Tracking Events, FoodLogiQ Connect is starting to truly render an image of a connected food chain.”
Learn more about how FoodLogiQ is building a tech-enabled traceability hub, and gain a deeper understanding of the future of supply chain transparency here. Interested in how we can support your company’s traceability technology needs? Reach out to our team to schedule a demo.
