How Good IS Your Traceability?

 

According to the CDC, the E. coli-affected lettuce has been linked to the Yuma, Arizona, growing region, but so far no individual grower, supplier, distributor, or brand has been identified. The CDC advises everybody to avoid buying or eating romaine lettuce from a grocery store or restaurant unless the romaine is known to not be from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region. Orlando Sentinel April 24, 2018

Same Old Thing

Years ago one of my colleagues and I at John Deere FoodOrigins attended several fresh produce and food processor trade shows in an effort to poll companies in that business sector concerning their capabilities to trace and track their products in the supply chain. The answer from each of these agri-food entities was the same – WE HAVE IT!

Of course they have it but then the follow up question was just how good their traceability was? It is not a binary thing, it is a level of sophistication, rigor and procedural issue. How does one measure their ability to trace backward or track forward in the chain? Since there are no standards once one delivers the answer to the first question then there is no need for any follow up.

Not So Great

So how does an entire variety of lettuce from THE primary growing region for leafy greens this time of year have a Schwarzenegger-like “Total Recall”? I would venture to say that while there are only a handful of companies growing, buying, packing and packaging Romain Lettuce not one of them could tell the market – it’s not mine and I can prove it.

Food products that are comingled at a plant or in a bin or elevator, like grain, can be difficult to identify the exact origin of those finished goods. That being said one should have the wherewithal to isolate a contaminate if it can be isolated at the last link in the chain prior to being ingested by some unfortunate consumer.

It Ain't Easy

Traceability is hard. It requires a set of protocols that are both tedious and onerous. Yet the importance of such practices are evident when the entire country is throwing out their salad makings just in case it is tainted with E. Coli. The cost to the industry must be enormous not just in this single event but for some time to come as consumers may shy away from all lettuce products for some period of time.

Contrary to popular beliefs this is not about bar codes and RFID technologies. Putting a sticker on the box, bag or bin does not solve the problem. It may help streamline the process but it does not replace it.

Measure to Manage Requires Standards

My guess is that there are a number of CEOs of food processing companies that might be asking the question that we asked many years ago – “How good is our traceability?” Without a set of standards for measuring it the answer might be that most people just don’t know, oh, and there are no standards.