The article concerns a document developed by GS1 titled “Traceability for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables” and available on the GS1 website (www.gs1.org).
Traceability, often defined as the ability to track the flow of products and shipments through supply chains and networks, along with the registration of parameters identifying them and the locations where this flow took place, is mandatory for many industries (for example, the food industry). For others (including the pharmaceutical industry), it is becoming the most essential element ensuring safety for both the entire supply chain and the final consumer.
The document recently developed by GS1 is titled: “Traceability for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Implementation Guide” and, as previously mentioned, is a guide dedicated to the food industry on how to skillfully implement GS1 standards to realize the main assumptions of traceability. Let us start from the beginning, however. Below is a list covering the scope of the document:
- implementation guide for fruit and vegetable growers;
- implementation guide for companies involved in packing and packaging of fruits and vegetables;
- implementation guide for food distributors;
- implementation guide for retailers;
- principles for applying GS1 identification standards.
Every partner in the fruit and vegetable supply chain should be able to skillfully identify their predecessor and successor in the context of the goods being moved. The priority in traceability is to protect consumers by identifying where a given product (batch of products) is located more quickly and accurately. This is of significant importance if a product must be withdrawn from the supply chain.
A system based on traceability requirements that also uses GS1 system Application Identifiers (AI) should link the GTIN with other information about the raw material and product, such as: supplier identification, raw material batch number, product batch number, number of trade units in logistics units, expiration date, recipient identification, production shift number, and other numbers/identifiers resulting from the conducted production process. This document defines the minimum requirements that participants in the fruit and vegetable supply chain should meet to be able to carry out the traceability process using GS1 standards and data exchange tools. The process described therein is not dependent on the technologies used by individual actors in the chain, as the most important aspect is the use of uniform identification standards. The intention of this solution was to create a basic operational structure for every organization, regardless of size and country of operation, which would be developed further during the creation of detailed guides for implementing the traceability system in a company or when creating additional requirements. The guide begins by explaining issues related to traceability: what it is, what the basic requirements and principles are, and how a company can define its role in the fruit and vegetable supply chain. In subsequent chapters of the document, the elements of the process of implementing a traceability system based on GS1 standards are described in a clear way for each participant in the described chain.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2009.