Food Traceability Systems And The Global Food Safety Initiative

By Author: Christopher Brown
Total Articles: 81
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In a world riddled with potential threats and pollution to our food, water and air supply going to the grocery store can be a stressful endeavor. How do you know where your food comes from? it is becoming more and more important that you do. These concerns and others are what have fueled the use of food traceability systems for many sectors of our food supply.

Food traceability is about knowing where a food item is or was at any particular moment and what has been done to it. It was decided that there was a need for a standardized industry approach to food traceability, especially when it came to produce, since our produce is at risk to be exposed to so many potential toxins in the water, air and soil. The ability to know confidentially where fruits and vegetables that you are feeding your family came from is of upmost importance for preventing disease and preserving health. Thus Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) were put into place to protect consumers.

The Produce Traceability Initiative works to enhance the speed and efficiency of traceability systems for the ...
... future. It lays out seven major milestones which produce suppliers are encouraged to implement in their individual traceability initiatives to ensure they are as accurate, trustworthy and comprehensive as possible. Likewise the Global Food Safety Initiative is a business-driven initiative for the continuous improvement of food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers worldwide.

Many produce leaders, such as Wish Farms in Florida, are spearheading efforts to make sure these two initiatives become common place in the produce industry. These thought leaders serve as mentors and examples to the rest of the produce community through their ongoing development of effective programs to ensure the highest standards in food safety and traceability, and compliance with PTI and GFSI. In addition, Wish Farms has also developed the patented and ground breaking produce traceability tool, FreshQC.

FreshQC allows Wish Farms to provide specific fruit traceability information about each individual package of produce. This microlevel produce traceability system allows Wish Farms, and other who implement its use, to isolate any incident of food safety to the exact area in the field where the produce was picked. Wish Farms requires all of their growers to utilize the FreshQC food traceability system. By doing so, they therefore ensure they are always providing the freshest and safest produce to there consumers. And likewise, customers who buy anything with the Wish Farms label can be enjoy it confidentially.

Wish Farms and others like them are important pioneers in creating a food traceability system that is good for consumers, growers, suppliers and the industry as a whole. It is hoped that more and more produce suppliers will follow the lead of Wish Farms and implement such comprehensive produce traceability methods to ensure the safety of their products for you and your family.

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