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Fresh produce traceability app
MINIMIZE WASTE , TRACEABILITY MADE EASY, REDUCE ADMIN COSTS , CONSISTENT QUALITY CONTROL , BETTER PLANNING & DISPATCH , OPTIONAL FARM SOFTWARE
MINIMIZE FRESH PRODUCE WASTE
farmsoft delivers opportunities to reduce waste during the packing, processing, storage, and distribution phases. By enforcing best practices, FIFO (when practical), inventory expiry monitoring, and easy stock takes - your company has every opportunity to minimize waste and maximize profit. From bar-code managed inventory, inventory labeling, to 3D pallet storage, farmsoft delivers on reduced waste. Checkout best practices for handling perishable inventory....
Post harvest app.
MORE TRACEABILITY
SMALL BUSINESS
You choose which features you want from farmsoft to bring maximum benefits to your business. Here are some various processes used by farmsoft clients:
* Receive & label inventory
* Sort, grade, wash, pack, and label finished goods
* Sell fresh produce by invoice
fresh produce traceability app
There are currently more than one billion smartphones in use across the world – and that figure is projected to double by 2015. As the use of “smart” mobile devices continues to grow, apps have become an incredibly effective way of providing information and resources to a wide audience. farmsoft provides access to food traceability information directly from smartphones, tablets, and PC's. Essential traceability information can be accessed at any place in the fresh produce supply chain.
An increase in smartphone use happens to coincide with the growth of a consumer demand for more sustainable food – “organic,” “locally grown,” “seasonal,” and “pesticide-free” are becoming more and more common in the vernacular of food sales. In the United States alone, annual sales of organic foods and beverages grew from US$6 billion in 2000 to US$26.7 billion in 2010. And there are nearly three times as many farmers markets in the United States today as there were in 2000.
It’s no surprise, then, that there are lots of apps for those interested in eating more healthful food, wasting less food, finding sustainable sources of seafood, or buying seasonally. These 23 apps for mobile devices and tablets are helping eaters, producers, advocates, and activists lead less wasteful and more environmentally sustainable, healthy, and delicious lives......
Electronic Labeling For Food Traceability And Fresh Produce Integrity
The year 2018 saw North America reeling under multiple E.coli outbreaks, with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issuing a blanket warning against consuming the suspected source — romaine lettuce. The agency along with the Food and Drug Administration struggled to pinpoint the source for the outbreak. Similar outbreaks of foodborne illnesses like Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella have also littered the past year affecting hundreds of people. Foodborne illnesses cause millions of dollars worth in losses from recalls, loss in sales and damage to brand reputation. Money needs to also be spent on notifying retailers, regulatory bodies and storing or disposing of affected products and government fines.
So, what steps are the government agencies and enterprises taking to reduce the impact of such outbreaks in the future? The CDC and FDA are encouraging labels on susceptible fresh produce which clearly state the origin of the product as well as when it was harvested so that consumers can take a more informed decision while purchasing. In fact, product labels can go a long way in boosting food safety and accurately locating the ground zero for outbreaks. With digitization gaining momentum everywhere, electronic packaging and labeling solutions are the key to delivering consistent and reliable data of each product’s journey from farm to shelves.
Simplifying Complex Food Systems with Reliable Data
Food systems are highly complex. A restaurant may have bought tomatoes from multiple distributors, who themselves may have repackaged their products after sourcing them from a variety of farms. We can see how it becomes a challenge to trace the origins of each item back to its source. It is thus important to link all the diverse participants within a supply chain. Reliable and consistent data is the indispensable factor that decides the integrity of food quality and helps quickly locate the ground zero during recall situations.
The challenge presents itself in the collection, management and analysis of such a large amount of data without suffering any damage to its quality. Much of this data is maintained by distributors in their respective PIMs, but they are neither in congruence with each other nor exposed to the end consumer. But technology has advanced in leaps and bounds making it possible to transform everyday items, even fresh produce into active and intelligent objects. Bringing electronic labeling solutions and cloud computing into the fold makes it simpler to record each and every event occurring to a product. Digital tags (RFID, NFC, QR codes, data matrix codes, barcodes) on packaging and labels can be used as the medium to link fresh produce to the internet, essentially giving them a unique identity or digital twin that is capable of collecting and relaying information about itself (origins, current location, previous stops in the supply chain etc.). Thus, by converting fresh produce and all food products into connected smart products and bringing all partners within the supply chain into a shared system to maintain integrity, the end result on the shelf will be capable of accurately describing its journey to a potential buyer.
Minimizing Impact of Contaminated Food with Traceability
With certain fresh produce, foodborne illnesses are unavoidable. The least we can do is to look for innovative solutions in order to contain their spread and minimize their impact. The detective work that goes into identifying the source farms for the outbreak of foodborne illness is exhaustive and time consuming. By the time government officials figure out the origin, the contaminated produce has already covered a lot of ground and affected hundreds of people. Entire supplies of the suspected produce gets halted resulting in severe losses and prices of similar produce shooting up. Brands associated with the produce take a hit to their reputation.
But fresh produce powered by electronic labels can show exactly which farm or distributor it has traveled from via it’s digital twin on the web. With a far more uncluttered food supply chain to sieve through, the investigative tasks for regulators becomes much more simpler. Product recalls become more straightforward by targeting only the suspected farms, instead of banning the supply of the entire range of the produce. Traceability is thus the key to tackling and understanding the causes for such frequent outbreaks.
But better management of foodborne illnesses is just one of the advantages of going digital.
Increased Visibility means fewer mishaps down the Supply Chain
Retailers, distributors, manufacturers and farmers can all benefit hugely from smart packaging and electronic labels. The digital transformation of very complex supply chains afford more transparency into all events that are a part of it and make available data of higher quality to work with. From producers to distributors, packaging companies and retailers, each participant can know the exact actions of a particular item within the supply chain. When you have a complete and accurate record of each product’s journey at both SKU and batch levels from all active participants, processes that focus on narrowing down sources for inadequacies or anomalies in events of a product recall situation become faster and simpler — more powerful.
Enterprises can keep track of harvest dates and accordingly plan logistics to ship items to locations depending on their freshness. A digital record via the digital twin of each item on the web enables far better stock keeping. These digital twins ensure that store employees are alerted to produce that are nearing their expiry dates or use-by dates . With a clearer view of items in their inventory that might soon be going bad, companies can plan for and take definite stems in offloading these items through multiple channels; for example sell them at cheaper rates or donate them to food banks.
Product Data is equally valuable to Consumers and Enterprises
It is not just enterprises who benefit from traceability and the expanded product information afforded by electronic labels. Consumers today are looking for more than an ingredient list on product labels. They want to know use-by and expiry dates, ingredients, allergen information, instructions for storage and preparation, advisory and warning statements, country of origin and much more. Savvy consumers are conscious of how their lifestyle choices and purchase decisions impact the world. Not only are they more aware of environmental and social issues, they want each aspect of their lives to contribute to the betterment of the world. This involves their purchase decisions being more responsible, sustainable and ethical. Brands would be unwise to ignore this shift in mindset and would do well to deliver more visibility into their products to build richer relations with their customers.
But there is only so much that the physical surface of a product can manage to cram into its limited confines! But the digital space is not bound by such confines. It can contain an endless amount of data, can capture and store changes in real time, distribute relevant data into multiple channels as deemed necessary and enable a user friendly interface to display the data, reducing unnecessary confusion caused by overcrowded text on product labels.
Electronic labels leverage the universal presence of smartphone technology in our daily lives to enable access to expanded product information at the point of consideration for a sale. Not only can brands utilize e-labels for the purposes of ensuring higher consumer transparency, it could be an opportunity for some innovation in packaging and branding. Smart packaging and interactive product labels can lead to a more personalized, interesting and fun shopping experience for richer, smarter and thoughtful customer engagement and experiences.
Electronic labels can reinvent smaller enterprises and farmers
There are plenty of smaller enterprises that pride over their organic produce. Fresh produce from such farms generally do not carry any outer packaging, save for a tiny sticker. These enterprises can capitalize on these tiny stickers to deliver rich content to their consumers. A single data matrix code on a sticker can elevate a orange into a connect smart product. Scanning its sticker will tell the potential buyer how and where the single orange was grown, the date it was harvested, temperature and storage conditions it was under as well as the locations it has passed through before reaching a local supermarket. It can carry information verifying its organic nature and lack of any bio-engineered content through certifications. Electronic labels can help smaller enterprises and farmers re-imagine their business practices by appealing to a more technologically savvy market base.
And that is not all that a simple data matrix code can do. Its traceability feature will also help smaller enterprises come onto a shared system of collaborators in events of contaminated and poisoned food circulating the market.
It is the responsibility of every enterprise which works to grow and distribute food, to ensure a bountiful supply of safe and fresh produce to the mass. Meshing the digital and physical world is the key to securing the integrity of the fresh food supply chain.
Unique cloud-based system
Kenya: National Horticulture Traceability System launched
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (MOALF) through Horticultural Crops Directorate (HCD) of Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) in collaboration with the horticulture exporters Associations of Kenya (FPEAK and KFC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, through its Kenya Agricultural Value chain Enterprise (KAVES) project; have developed an online National Horticulture Traceability System (HTS).
The cloud-based system is unique to Kenya and will make it possible for any shipment that does not comply with market standards on arrival in the export market to be traced back to source, and remedial action taken immediately.
The system was developed to increase transparency and accountability in horticultural supply chains in response to recent challenges faced by the industry in complying with EU and international food safety requirements. These include lack of a national traceability system for horticulture produce; frequent interceptions of exports due to excessive pesticide maximum residue levels; and the presence of regulated pests in export consignments. These challenges pose a threat to the competitiveness of Kenyan horticulture exports, which are currently valued at KES 90 billion (USD 888 million) annually with 80 percent going to EU markets.
Fresh produce traceability app
The National Horticulture Traceability System has been developed over the last 18 months through a pilot phase involving 12 export companies and 1,460 smallholders growing beans and peas in 10 countries. The system has three main components: a mobile app for registering farmers and capturing routine farm operations and agronomic practices; a web reporting portal for sharing information among stakeholders; and a barcode and Quick Reference (QR) code printing module.
The HTS is customized for Kenya’s smallholder-based export industry and can accommodate up to one million farmers. The HTS has the capacity to identify the exact source of a shipment through its GPS coordinates, and generate online production and handling reports required by the market. Deployment of the HTS will increase market confidence and safeguard more than 2.5 million smallholder farmers and workers involved in export horticulture. The system will increase the competitiveness of Kenyan horticulture exports through enhanced transparency in the supply chain. It will facilitate a rapid response to food safety risks by providing the capacity to identify, isolate, and rectify non-compliant producers; and expedite responses to pest and disease early warning alerts by locating affected areas.
The HTS system will place Kenya at the leading edge of countries supplying the EU market with horticultural crops.
The National Horticulture Traceability System was launched Thursday September 8, 2016 at the KALRO National Agriculture Research Laboratories (NARL). The launch was officiated by the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, Hon. Willy Bett and the USAID Assistant to the Administrator Bureau of Food Security, Beth Dunford.
For more information:
USAID-KAVES
The Managing Director- Horticultural Crops Directorate
The Director General- Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA)
info@agricultureauthority.go.ke
Freshliance brings out new product
Cloud-based temperature tracking system improves product traceability
Recently, Freshliance brought out a new product: a cloud-based real time temperature tracking system. Compared to similar temperature recording systems on the market, this product's special feature is that it can improve the traceability, and record the temperatures for more than one year. This means that the transportation record can be traced back even further.
Cloud-based real time temperature tracking system
Real time temperature tracking system improves traceability
By using this cloud-based temperature tracking system, the customer can follow the transport in real time with the app or on the website, and exactly know its location. Freshliance has developed this product based on the requirements of its foreign customers. After solving its server problems, it has now started to sell in China as well.
Cloud-based real time temperature tracking system
Currently, Freshliance has a server in Europe. In the future, it will also have a Chinese and an English system for the Chinese and foreign market. For the international promotion of its cloud-based real time temperature tracking system, Freshliance will attend the American PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans, and the German Anuga Fair in Cologne, where they hope to find more partners
From 19-21 October, Freshliance will be at stand 4704 of the PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans. They will attend the Anuga Fair in Cologne from 7-11 October at stand 024a in exhibition hall 4.1A.
Kevin Wu (Marketing Director)
FRESHLIANCE
Indian app promises to track and trace fruit & veg
A new app is promising to provide all the information you may need with a few taps on your phone. FarmLink, an Indian fruit and vegetable supply and chain company, will soon be launching an app called FarmTrace that will trace a product from the farm to the consumer. With a seed stage funding of Rs 200 million (2.5 mln euros) from its parent company last year, Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta, the agri-tech company intends to expand its geographical reach, strengthen its technology and contribute to the supply chain.
The FarmTrace app would help a consumer locate the store where they can find the right food and also get to know the location where it was grown and the nutritional factors that made it.
Founded in 2014, the agri-tech start-up obtains the fruits and vegetables directly from farmers through a network of collection and service centres. The produce is then delivered to established retail stores, hotels, cafes, e-commerce platforms, among others.
But the company is now going one step further by deploying a B2C consumer traceability app that can track the product from farm to shelf, allowing customers and consumers to get a transparent insight into when, where, and how the food was grown.
Economictimes.indiatimes.com reports how in the final stages of making FarmTrace, the app is available to all Android and iOS users.
While the app is currently available, the company says it is going through a phase of testing at Hosur in Bangalore and they expect to launch it in June. The pilot launch will be in Bangalore and will be subsequently available across states in India at a later stage.
Migros implements TE-FOOD for blockchain based food traceability
Migros, a retailer in Switzerland, implements TE-FOOD’s blockchain based traceability system for its fresh fruits & vegetables supply chains. The project provides an interesting case for food traceability, and aims to deliver significant value for Migros and its supply chain partners.
Although a growing number of food companies are launching traceability projects, many of them focus only on the marketing advantages by providing transparent food information to their consumers. However, food traceability can provide more value from easier product recalls to improved supply chain control.
Migros wants to achieve deeper supply chain insights to optimize its processes. Supply chain optimization can lead to quicker distribution and reduced food waste, which is also part of the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) initiatives for the next years.
Fresh food suppliers of Migros already had the possibility to communicate traceability data from their legacy systems (ERP, Farm management) to Migros through a GS1 standards based API (EPCIS). Now this data collection method was extended to a B2B mobile app, a web app, and file upload possibility - with the assistance of TE-FOOD.
Traceability data, which is sent by the suppliers, is automatically transformed to GS1’s Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) format, and sent to Migros’ own EPCIS system. The system is aimed to be used internally, opening it up towards consumers is outside of the current project’s scope.
For more information:
Marton Ven
TE-FOOD
Email: marton.ven@te-food.com