Sep 29, 2015

Inexpensive labeling can improve traceability, eVGN April 2013

Phil Tocco believes it’s crucial for agriculture industry operators to develop effective food traceability options and seek ways to make it a priority in their daily endeavors.

The Michigan State University Extension educator led the “Tackling Traceability Workshop” March 27 in Kalamazoo, Mich. The workshop was targeted to help growers understand how a proper produce traceability plan can protect farms and others in the food chain in case of a foodborne illness.

He said growers, packagers and distributors of agriculture products could begin by establishing “good ag practices based verbatim” on the principles found in the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit checklist by making sure:

–A documented traceability program has been established.

–The operation has performed a “mock recall” that was proven to be effective.

–Each production area is identified or coded to enable traceability in the event of a recall.

–Product moving out of the field is uniquely identified to enable traceability.

–Records are kept recording the source of the incoming product and the destination of outgoing product that is uniquely identified to enable traceability.

Tocco said more complex tracking tools such as using UPC codes, RFID tags, Quick Response (QR) bar codes, Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) codes or other optical machine-readable labeling devices could be used by producers and growers, but he prefers a simpler and less expensive approach – particularly for smaller operations.

For smaller operators, he said traceability information marking devices could be as basic as a $20 price marker/stamper, which enables the user to change the pertinent number each time as necessary.

“It’s easy if you’re doing 100 labels a day and you’re keeping track of what’s going on,” Tocco said. “Every time you do a lug or whatever, it can have all the information you need. It’s cheap and it’s foolproof, as long as you don’t run out of ink. I’m a big fan of cheap. There’s a lot of ways of looking at labeling products and it doesn’t have to be terribly expensive.”

He said a $150 label maker and printer could be used to produce a more significant number of labels.

“A label maker will allow me to do something a little more professional,” said Tocco, who emphasized the value of marketing in the product labeling process. “You can add clip art or a company logo, or a photo using the software that comes with the label maker.

“The nice thing is it’s self-adhesive, so you can use it on a clamshell or a box – it even sticks to wax boxes with a little bit of work. And it’s fast. You can whip out 10 of these, if it’s all in the same lot number, in no time at all.”

A more sophisticated tracking system could be put together at a cost exceeding $1,000 by using a Bluetooth-enabled iPad in combination with a scanner-type tracking device.

“If you’re doing a lot of different pallets and trying to walk through it, all I need to do is pull it up on my notepad notes, scan it and whatever I scan is going to show up,” he said.

“If I’m doing literally hundreds of pallets, it makes sense to scan them and it shows up in the download. From that information, I can keep track of inventory management right here on the fly. If I’m only dealing with five or six selling events, it’s not very cost effective. But if we’re talking hundreds, it’s very effective in order to track a lot of things very quickly.

– Gary Pullano