Presentation regarding Produce Traceability as presented to FDA & FSIS on December 9 & 10, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

1. Feasibility of Bulk Material
Traceability
Charles R. Hurburgh, Jr.,
Professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
with
ith
Brittini Brown, Gretchen Mosher, Maitri Thakur, Greg Bennett
Howard Shepherd, Chad Laux, Gunsu Gemesi

3. Traceability is a Multipurpose
Activity
A ti it
Ability to trace the history, application or location of an
entity by means of recorded identifications. (EU
#1830)
Respond to security threats
Respond to food safety problems
Document chain of custody
chain-of-custody
Document production practices (eg. organic)
Meet consumer desires or social preferences
Provide safety/quality assurance or uniformity
P id f t / lit if it
Protect integrity of brand name; control risk
Authenticate claims (eg. Regional foods)
Regulatory compliance
R l li
Improve logistics and reduce production costs
Organized, uniform response to unusual conditions
Carbon footprinting

4. Information at Each Step!

5. Process Mapping – at the Farm Level

6. Tracking Unit – Farm Level

7. Farmers Cooperative Company
Odebolt F ilit
Od b lt Facility
• First Site for ISO
Certification
• Replicate at Other
p
Locations
Bulk Grain Handling

8. Tracking Bulk Grain
• Initial bin assignment all inbound tickets
• Data fields for other information related to scale ticket
• Date, time stamp establishes position within bin
• Current technology – all possible scale tickets
in every outbound.
outbound
• Translation – any tracking is a process of
elimination
• Where the grain cannot be.
• Reduce the possibilities with
management decisions
• Controlled movement
• Grain quality management

9. Grain Traceability-Steady Improvement
Traceability Index (Precision)
First Set Second Set Average traceability
index improving over
i d i i
Locations 22 15 time
Complete Data 7 12
====================
Locations with high
traceability index
Tracking Index lacked QM systems
Average 374 227
High 942 945 Low index values at
manageable levels
Low 8 9
September 2007: 20 recalls; TI = 160; Range 3 - 1130
p g
July 2008: 26 recalls: TI = 145; Range 5 - 698

10. Cost-Benefit
Summary for QMS
Operation
p g
Cost Savings
Grading $1,085
Inventory Control 10,675
Operations Efficiency 2,180
Regulatory Compliance 5,300
Employee Development 3,400
3 400
Total $22,640
Cost of QMS $11,250
Ratio: 2:1
One location – four months - 2002
Copyright © 2002 Iowa State University and Farmers Cooperative Elevator Company

11. Supply Chain Mapping
pp y pp g
Feed
Inputs
Dairy
Farms
Dairy
Processor

12. •Date Received
•Supplier
•Bill of Lading
•Operator
•Silo Destination •Silo Source •Filler ID
•Silo L l
•Sil Level •Product
P d t •Product Description
P d tD i ti
•Product Total •PT Tank Source
•Product Destination •Date Received
•Cream Destination •UPC Number
•Cream Total •Sell By Date
•Cooler Location
•Pallet ID
•Quantity
•Product Destination
•Route ID
•Order Number

13. Summary
y
• Traceability relates to product quality, safety,
security and authenticity
authenticity.
• Traceability of bulk commodities can be
more accurate than generally believed.
believed
• Traceability = operational efficiencies.
• Traceability back through farming operations
to land parcels? Would create management
information as well as food safety.
• Quantitative (amounts) vs probability (odds)

14. Summary
• The best system will become the regulatory and
world trade standard.
• International standards must prevail; ISO
22000/22005/22006 already
• How precise will be good enough?
• Gaps:
– Ontology, linkages and models
– Operating practices integrated with tracking integrated
with cost efficiency integrated with Carbon tracking.
– Application templates designed around cost analysis and
assessment of objectives.

15. See Proceedings from
g
Agricultural and Food Traceability Conference
June 2009