THE VALUE OF TRACING SHIPPING CONTAINERS, CONTENTS

David Merrefield

Unfortunate as it is, the most cursory glance at any day's news headlines shows vividly that we continue to live in a world characterized by totally unpredictable acts of terroristic violence. There's not much reason to imagine that will change soon.

That being the case, many steps have been taken by the government and other entities to make daily life as safe as it can be. But, at the same time, it's quite evident that opportunities for mischief abound. And virtually anything can facilitate that. To cite just a few of them: trucks, airplanes, fuel, fertilizer, chemicals, uranium, pathogens, firearms and food. The last, of course, is of greatest concern to us.

After all, it isn't too difficult to imagine the harm that could be wrought if an element, chemical or pathogen were introduced into food product and widely decimated to the populace. In an effort to hand the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the ability to track any food product right to supermarket gondolas, coolers and freezers -- and to seize it -- a set of regulations has been proposed and embodied in the Bioterrorism Act of 2002. Broadly, the regulations set out the requirement that food processors register production facilities, give notice of contemplated importation of ingredients, and maintain records that would allow the tracing of items, by lot number, to any pre-consumer stop.

Some of these requirements, such as product detention, are already in effect. Others will go into effect late this year. Still others, primarily concerning recordkeeping, won't go into effect until 2005. These regulations are seen by some industry players, and their lobbying arms, as unduly rigid, unnecessarily complex and ruinously expensive. Moreover, it's argued, the ability to trace product already exists, and perhaps in better form. To wit: If an ingredient is suspect, it could have various product manifestations. That gives rise to the implication that tracing by lot number is too narrow an approach. You'll find out more about regulations and how companies are grappling with the challenges they pose by looking at the news feature on Page 39.

But, despite challenges regulations pose, many companies are seeking ways to deal with them and the complexities they imply. One of the most complex of considerations is that of tracing the vast volume of food ingredient and product that's imported into this country every day, to which those of us who live in a port city such as New York can readily attest.

This week's news feature sets out how one manufacturer is using technology to trace coffee from its source in Brazil to its importation point near New York, and beyond. The crux of the effort is a little more sophisticated than just trying to be sure contaminant isn't poured into coffee beans. Rather, the real work is to monitor the movement of shipping containers. Each of the containers is the size of small house. They arrive in copious quantities on the decks of ships. The possibility of burying nearly anything in the mountain of coffee beans in such a container is far too real for comfort.

Efforts such as these, though, do allow for some degree of comfort. Let's hope they're effective.