Industry survey to provide feedback on Produce Traceability Initiative

Newark, Del. - One year after the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) Steering Committee unveiled its action plan to enhance the produce industry's traceability capability, companies across the produce supply chain have the opportunity to share feedback via a new online survey. All industry members involved in the produce supply chain - from grower to retail and foodservice - are encouraged to participate in the online survey, which can be accessed via a link on www.producetraceability.org. The survey, which is being conducted by Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and United Fresh Produce Association, will help the PTI Steering Committee and administering associations assess PTI adoption to date and identify additional support needs.

"The associations developed this survey to collect feedback from the industry on PTI implementation," said Dan Vache, vice president of supply chain management at United Fresh. "We can use the data to help the industry meet future PTI milestones and thereby improve traceability across the entire supply chain."

The PTI, administered by Canadian Produce Marketing Association, PMA and United Fresh, is designed to help the industry maximize the effectiveness of current traceback procedures, while developing a standardized industry approach to enhance the speed and efficiency of future tracebacks. The PTI Action Plan, released in 2008, includes a series of seven traceability implementation milestones, with the final milestone to be implemented in 2012.

"Achieving standardized, whole-chain traceability is an important goal for the produce industry and the PTI provides a roadmap for reaching that goal in the most efficient way possible," said PMA Chief Science Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker.  "The survey will provide valuable feedback on the industry's educational and informational needs, and issues that may be impacting implementation."

Participation in the survey is anonymous and only aggregated data will be reported. The deadline for completing the survey is Jan. 4, 2010. Results from the PTI survey will be reported to the PTI Steering Committee and made publicly available via the PTI Web site within the first quarter of 2010.