Everyone has read or head about a recall of food products from our local grocers, but very rarely do we talk about how the bad product is traced back to its source.

A large number of companies have banded together to create a system of true Traceability from farm to store to table called the Produce Traceability Initiative with the goal of electronic traceability for every case of produce.

This goal is to be achieved through a standardized case marking and uniform case identification for each case of produce.

The basis of this traceable label originates with a grower’s GS1 issued company number which then becomes part of the GS1 GTIN number. Added to this number is additional information such as batch number and pick date.

One of the keys to traceability is the use of the Voice Pick Code in the bottom right hand corner. The VoiceCode is a simple hash code, generated from the company GTIN lot number and date code, to produce an easy 4 digit number that can be used in a voice picking system instead of scanning the barcode.

Once the system is in place, produce can be traced back to its origin in a very short period of time, which means that affected crops can be isolated quickly and any product located at other stores that came from the same location can be removed from the shelves fast.

Creating a label printing system is a very simple process that can be setup and running in about an hour. It consists of a thermal transfer printer and label design software that will generate the VoiceCode.

For additional information please visit the Produce Traceability Initiative website at www.producetraceability.org/ or contact us for more details.

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