System allows whole-chain traceability of produce

A system developed by Top 10 Produce for smaller farms is now being rolled out at one large Salinas Valley operation, using labels that enable whole chain traceability.

Fresh Roots, which provides produce, branding and logistics for foodservice customers, was doing traceability, using pencil, paper and proprietary lot numbers.

The system was good enough to comply with federal law — namely, the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, which mandates that companies be able to trace each product one step forward and one step back.

“But what they needed was whole chain electronic traceability,” said John Bailey, executive director of Top 10 Produce. “They also needed to be compliant with PTI (Produce Traceability Initiative) so that the system they were using would be interoperable with all their different partners. The organizations that are buying from them are now using PTI, so Fresh Roots needed to use that same system. They got that from us.”

Top 10 developed the traceability system for use on small, independent farms. It consists of the label and a hand-held scanner. The extra dimension added for the Fresh Roots system is a QR code that can be read by the scanner or a smartphone. Each code contains a GS1 number that ties back to a specific parcel of land.

There’s a regional identification on the Salinas Valley labels as well, in a concept adapted from vineyard appellations, or grapes grown in specific areas used for wines. The Salinas Valley labels have the words “Blanco black,” which is also the name of the rich soil found there. “

Blanco black is the most expensive soil,” said Bailey. “It’s really rich, black dirt. Of course, the label is black and white, so we’re playing off that for the certification mark. People who know better know Blanco black means good soil. And it’s all about the soil.”

The new traceability system is now in beta testing and will launch fully during the upcoming growing season. It will be available for use on crops when the food buyers ask for it, and that’s a growing list, said Bailey.

The system is also relatively inexpensive, and well within the economics of small- and mid-sized farms.

“Soup to nuts, it costs $1,000 to get a program in place. Some microfarms or urban farms might not want to spend it, but few farms in the Salinas Valley can’t afford it. It’s become very inexpensive,” said Bailey.

Fresh Roots field packs its crops, including lettuce and strawberries, and the first traceability labels are applied immediately after harvest. For fresh-cut and consolidation customers, Fresh Roots will apply the labels at the packinghouse. Fresh Roots has farms in 18 states and Canada that are already using a version of the traceability system for the related Top 10 and Locale brands.

The system has not had to be used in a food recall incident, but its traceback capabilities did come into play to settle a Perishable Agricultural Commodity Act (PACA) claim, said Bailey. A grower shipped product to a number of distributors, all of whom were satisfied with it, except for one. When the distributor filed a PACA complaint, the grower used a combination of a consumer feedback report and the traceability data to prove the bad product did not come from that grower’s fields.

“There are some legal teeth to this technology that growers are starting to recognize,” said Bailey.

Users of the Blanco black QR code can use an app to link into a variety of other data, including soil data and other data relating to the Salinas Valley. The mark is a certification mark and not a brand; anyone growing produce in the valley can use the code, even growers who grow on other kinds of soils.

But the ability to trace a product’s progress through the entire supply chain is what makes the system most attractive.

“We can trace lettuce 10 steps forward down the road. You can’t stop us from knowing because it’s not just the supply chain scanning the data. Even consumers are now scanning labels and putting data back into the system so we know where the product is at the end of the chain,” said Bailey. “We now have a whole new set of data we’re able to access about where your problems end up.”