TRACKING FROM FARM TO STORE

MICHAEL GARRY

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- In addition to a government-industry effort to develop a national tracking system for animals in the food supply (see main story), private vendors are developing systems that individual companies could use to trace meat and other products through the supply chain.

Unlike the government program, these systems would be used to track products all the way to the store level and could be employed by food retailers and distributors.

One company, Global Technology Resources, based here, introduced a tracking system in December, just weeks before the first case of mad cow disease was found in the U.S. The system is designed to detect, track and manage food safety threats across the supply chain in real time, using a Web-based global positioning system, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology and biosensors. The RFID system uses the electronic product code standard being developed for the food and CPG industry, among others.

Paul Cheek, president of Global Technology Resources, said that his company has been "overwhelmed since the mad cow incident" in December, including interest from several large supermarket chains he declined to name. He said interest in his company's system is also being driven by concerns in the insurance and financial industries about increased risks to food companies due to disease or terrorism.

Cheek said the system, developed in concert with a fast-food company, could also help retailers comply with the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 and the Country-of-Origin Labeling law. The system creates an electronic audit trail at various points along the supply chain, including farm, ranch, processing plants, transport vehicles, storage facilities and stores. "We can pinpoint where contaminants entered the supply chain and isolate the problem," he said. He estimated the system's cost to run between one-half cent to one cent per pound of product.

The Global Resources system displays real-time satellite images of marketing areas online that show the network of locations that a product has passed through, along with detailed information on each location. Notifications are automatically sent to appropriate parties to take action.