Because of the complexity and range of the U.S. food and agricultural network, it is often more difficult to uncover definitive answers than an initial assessment indicates. As policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety Jaydee Hanson told Slate Magazine, “It is not unusual for it to take so long to track down the source of a microbial outbreak.” With every step from farmfield to packaging to the consumer’s kitchen table, there is a short time lag. This becomes a significant chunk of time when officials need to track down initial causes of contamination, as in the recent romaine case, and must attempt to follow that supply chain back to the original source. In addition, by the time enough cases have been reported for the CDC to detect a pattern and green-light an investigation, it is often weeks past the distribution of the contaminated product and the U.S. agricultural supply chain has moved on. This leaves officials attempting to glean answers from a completely different environment and is a large part of why it can be so hard to determine what really started an outbreak. This is where PTI comes in.
What is PTI?
“This is a great example of the combined efforts and strengths of multiple associations, and I think that the joint members of the associations ought to be very proud of the work that the steering committee has done.”
Bryan Silbermann, former PMA president
PTI, or the Product Traceability Initiative, was created in a collaboration among the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), the United Fresh Produce Association, and the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, as well as other industry leaders. Made with the goal of eliminating confusion and eradicating time lag, the Produce Traceability Initiative aimed to make traceability throughout the U.S. food supply as straightforward and efficient as possible. When it was originally announced, the initiative was a “plan seeking voluntary compliance for standard traceability for the entire produce supply chain by the end of 2012.”
In order to achieve its goals, PTI outlines seven steps to ensure electronic traceability.
- Brand owners obtain GS1-issued company prefixes
- Assign 14-digit Global Trade Item Numbers to every case
- Provide those GTINs to their buyers by third quarter 2009
- By third-quarter 2010, brand owners will begin placing GTIN and lot numbers on case labels in human-readable form
- At the same time, they will provide those numbers in machine-readable barcodes
- Subsequent handlers scan and store the numbers on inbound cases in 2011
- Subsequent handlers can scan and store the numbers on outbound cases in 2012
How has PTI been working since 2012?
Years after the Produce Traceability Initiative was launched in the industry, we have still not reached 100 percent compliance when it comes to universal case labeling. Though the creation of PTI was certainly a step in the right direction, the non-mandatory nature of the initiative translated to slow progress and uncertainty about official requirements to achieve traceability, making it difficult to get all members of the industry on the same page. “On the whole, most major grower-shippers are putting traceability labels on their cases, but many smaller farmers are not…‘Certain small farms are complying, but like the rest of the industry, some are also waiting to see what is actually required of them before doing anything,’ says Charles Waud, president of WaudWare in Brampton, Orlando.”
Recent events with the romaine outbreak have led to a renewed focus on PTI. With the current traceback system, investigators face a seemingly impossible task as they contend with mountains of data and records, changing agricultural environments, and the unrelenting passage of time that takes them further from the answers they need. As writer for The Packer, Ashley Nickle states, “Expecting quick investigation results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration is not practical. I have no doubt the people there are competent and working diligently to identify a source in the current E. coli outbreak, which has sickened 84 people, but investigators face a monumental task.” Read more about Ashley’s take on the outbreak here.
Integrating PTI with Food Safety
A good first step towards strengthening the Product Traceability Initiative is integrating it with existing procedures and systems. If your organization is scanning barcodes and storing them in a system, make sure this information is readily available and easy to share. Utilizing this information in tandem with food safety operations can help with mock recall and traceability activities.
If your organization already has cloud-based solutions for food safety management, find out if they have the ability to integrate with barcode scanners and other external hardware devices. Having the ability to store food safety, corrective action management and traceability information in one system centralizes efforts for a more streamlined approach to food safety and quality management.
If your organization is looking for cloud-based solutions, CompWALK provides an online and mobile food safety management platform that can integrate with other cloud-based solutions, barcode scanners, temperature monitoring devices and more. Learn more about CompWALK for food safety management here.
- Outline of the 7 PTI Milestones – https://www.producetraceability.org/documents/7_Milestones_to_PTI_Implementation.pdf
- Resources for PTI Implementation – http://producetraceability.org/resources/
- Checklist for growers/buyers/packers/shippers/receivers, as well as other helpful links – https://www.producetraceability.org/