Produce Traceability Initiative Agrees on Key Milestones

BOSTON — The Steering Committee of the Produce Traceability Initiative yesterday agreed on several key milestones that need to be completed in order to develop a whole-chain traceability system for the produce industry. The committee listed these milestones as follows: Brand owners must obtain a GS1-issued company prefix. Brand owners must assign 14-digit GTINs to all case configurations. Brand owners must provide and maintain their GTIN information and corresponding data to their buyers. All parties must have the systems to capture and store GTINs and subsequent information. Those parties packing the product are responsible for providing the GTIN, lot number and pack/harvest date in a human-readable form on each case. Those parties packing the product are responsible for encoding the GTIN, the lot number, and the pack/harvest date in a GS1-128 barcode. Each handler of the case must read and store the following information both one step up and one step down the supply chain: GTIN; lot number; pack/harvest date; shipper ID; shipper name; shipper address; receiver ID; receiver name; receiver address; date of shipment; date of receipt; quantity; unit of measure; and shipment ID. The Steering Committee will meet next on June 12 in Chicago to identify timelines for implementation of each of the above milestones.

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