Internet system locates food handlers along supply chain
and database to allow companies to track their food products
throughout the supply chain using radio frequency identification
(RFID) and a new way of determining the exact location of each
handler.
ScoringAg.com, has been specifically designed to provide tracing information on agricultural products worldwide, from the "field-to-fork", the company said this week. Companies will need such systems as governments implement new regulations requiring them to track food products through the supply chain.
RFID technology, which uses miniature antennas and tiny computer chips to track items at a distance using radio waves, is increasing coming to the fore as the best means oftracking goods throughout the supply chain. Many suppliers have been obliged to install RFID technology because of regulatory pressure and retail requirements from big retailers such as Wal-Mart.
The ScoringAg system provides RFID traceback in real time through a secure online databank that pinpoints the location of each handler in the food chain. The system can also workwith barcodes. Companies will have unique accounts through which they will be able to access their product specific data.
Location is identified through a unique Premises IDentification Code (PIDC), a mapping technology developed by ScoringSystem. PIDC records activities and actions performed on theanimals, fish, or crops at each location - even in the middle of a packing plant, or on board a factory ship, or in the middle of a farmer's field, and all the way to the retailer and consumer.
ScoringSystem's PIDC traceability system uses the ISO standard for location and property identification. However ScoringSystem has developed a more comprehensive system to defineall land and sea locations globally, including those areas that are not recognised or covered by the ISO standard, the UN and other international organisations.
"In today's global marketplace, any true traceability system must include all agricultural products to provide a true chain of custody with traceback and traceupthroughout," ScoringSystem stated in a press release. "This includes fish from lakes, rivers, and oceans around the world, poultry and hydroponics crops that may be raised inmulti-story structures above ground and wild mushrooms, truffles, and root vegetables that may be collected or harvested below ground."
The traceback system provides online tracking through the food chain, including transport operators, vehicles, inspection stations, stockyards and all processors and foodhandlers to prove source verification.
"Without efficient, effective data collection system and a Web-based data management system, tagging livestock and other agriculture items cannot provide true animaltraceback and traceup - even when a local, resident software system and database is used," ScoringSystem stated in a press release. "A Web-based system makes it possible for recordsto move with the individual product, which cuts the time required for source verification to just seconds."
