Food Safety / Traceability / Transparency
The time to embrace a bold vision for food traceability is now
FoodLogiQ, the leading SaaS provider of food safety compliance, whole chain traceability, and supply chain transparency solutions, has responded to an industry call for feedback on a recently-released industry report outlining recommendations to embrace a bold vision for traceability throughout the food supply chain.
The Romaine Task Force is a cross-functional group of executive industry leaders from across the supply chain, experts from academia and other disciplines, and government officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and state departments of health and agriculture. The Task Force and its four working groups, representing over 100 industry leaders, regulatory professionals and academic scientists, met in Dallas, TX, in February of this year to review progress to date and to work together in-person to build on that progress. The group released a full report in March 2019 and issued a call for commentary from industry on the report.
“Since launching the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) more than a decade ago, our industry has made great strides in being able to label cartons and consumer packaging with lot codes, scannable bar codes and data that link back to individual growers and fields,” said Tom Stenzel, president and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association, and Cathy Burns, CEO of Produce Marketing Association, in an article published in The Packer. “Yet, we are not capturing that data all the way through the system such that we can identify what specific product was sold at specific locations. When a consumer gets sick, we have to find a way to identify the responsible product and the data tracing its origin.”
With a history steeped in traceability, FoodLogiQ fully supports the call for an increased effort around traceability in the food industry. “We applaud the Romaine Task Force for their work to bring the need for a bolder vision for traceability into the light,” said FoodLogiQ CEO Sean O’Leary. “FoodLogiQ is ready to help support this continued effort and to lend our expertise as a leader in the food traceability technology.”
Among the recommendations were to develop systems and approaches that identify and narrow the scope of possible lots/suppliers of leafy greens at any given retail or foodservice establishment at any given time, and retain that information for immediate use in a traceback investigation.
“Partnering with our customers who are actively implementing traceability, we have learned a great deal about the best practices, hurdles and opportunities presented with implementing traceability in the food supply chain,” said O’Leary.
In addition to the traceability implementations of its customer base, FoodLogiQ has remained active in numerous industry associations guiding traceability and transparency in the food industry including GS1 US and the Produce Marketing Association. This involvement has included input into the guidelines for the use of GS1-128 barcodes, defining attributes for traceability and models to share this data across the supply chain.
“At FoodLogiQ, we recognize that there is more value for all if we work together to solve our industry’s business challenges,” said O’Leary.
FoodLogiQ boasts a customer base that includes Buffalo Wild Wings, CAVA, CKE Restaurants, Compass Group USA, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, IPC/SUBWAY, Panda Restaurant Group, Raising Cane’s, sweetgreen and Tropical Smoothie Cafe. FoodLogiQ’s reach extends across the entire supply chain to include food manufacturers such as Tyson Foods, Hain-Celestial and Smithfield Foods, food retailers, including Whole Foods Market, as well as hundreds of growers, co-packers and produce marketers. FoodLogiQ was also recognized the last two years in a row by Forbes Magazine as being one of the top 25 most innovative AgTech startups.
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