PTI/FYI e-news Quarter 3 2016 – The Produce Traceability Initiative

For more information, contact Jane Proctor at CPMA, Angela Fernandez at GS1 US, Ed Treacy at PMA and Dan Vaché at United Fresh

In This Update

Tim York Joins PTI Leadership Council as New Co-Chair

The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) Leadership Council (LC) welcomes Tim York, president of Markon Cooperative Inc., as its co-chair replacing Mike Agostini, senior category director of produce, Wal-Mart Stores, who stepped down from his PTI LC position earlier this year. Tim joins Doug Grant, executive vice president and chief operations officer of The Oppenheimer Group.

Tim has nearly 40 years of experience in the produce and foodservice industries. He joined Markon in 1985 as purchasing director and has served in his current role of president since 1990. Tim has held numerous committee and task force positions, including Chairman of PMA’s Foodservice Division (1994-1996), and Chairman of the Produce Marketing Association (2002-2003), and Member, USDA Fruit and Vegetable Advisory Council. He is currently a member of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association Board of Directors, and is Chair of the Center for Produce Safety. He is also involved in several multi-stakeholder collaborative efforts working on food safety, food waste, sustainability, and environmental protections.

Tim’s ideas and passionate call to action for continued focus on produce traceability were recently reflected in an opinion piece he co-authored with his PTI LC co-chair Doug Grant for The Packer.

Buyer Working Group to Address Label Harmonization

At its June meeting held in Chicago, the PTI Leadership Council recommended a task force be formed to help the industry understand and harmonize the multiple labeling requirements requested by buyers of produce across the United States and Canada.

To facilitate this process, CPMA, GS1 US, PMA, and United Fresh Produce Association request assistance from PTI organizations across the industry to help determine what the existing case labeling requirements are. This can be accomplished by collecting as many label samples as possible from both the buyer and grower/shipper communities.

Once this inventory is established, a task force will be formed under the PTI Buyers Working Group to include buyers from both countries regardless of their engagement in PTI with an end goal of examining all requirements to determine a “master” label that all buyers could commit to. Precedent for this effort exists as previously the major RPC users in both countries agreed to one common label for use on RPCs; hopefully the same can be achieved for all labels regardless of container type used.

Should you wish to participate in this task force, please email Ed Treacy a listing of case labeling requirements that your company has received from your trading partners. If there are regional or state-specific regulatory requirements you must include in your labeling process, please include this information. The information you provide will help facilitate the process to determine the extent and variety of the labeling requests the fresh produce industry is experiencing.

Case Study: DineEquity and McLane Foodservice Collaborate to Drive Case-Level Traceability

With more than 3,600 restaurants in 18 countries, DineEquity is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies with two iconic flagship brands— Applebee’s® and IHOP®. The company wanted to take steps to achieve traceability for increased food safety for its franchisees’ restaurants and their hundreds of thousands of customers who dine at these restaurants each day. Read this case study to see how DineEquity collaborated with one of its major distributors, McLane Foodservice, to implement GS1-128 barcodes for case-level traceability.

Media Highlights on Traceability and Food Safety

GS1 Standards News You Can Use

The GS1 US Product Images Application Guideline for the Retail Grocery Industry is now available. This document provides guidelines for digital imaging as it relates to GS1 Standards as well as detailed guidance on how to create, manage and supply product images for use in commerce applications across retail operations. It includes general information as well as specific examples and guidance for produce.

The GTIN Allocation Rules are now the GTIN Management Standard. The GTIN Management Standard is a new and improved version of the GTIN Allocation Rules that make the rules for GTIN® management simpler and more effective. This change has no impact on the produce industry; for more information, please refer to FAQs and on-demand webinars here.

The v7020 X12 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) implementation guidelines have been updated to reflect industry-approved enhancements that support today’s unified business processes and digital-savvy consumers. Created by the GS1 US X12 Requirements Group, updates include:

Enhancements to the 856 Ship Notice for the Produce Traceability Initiative guidelines to allow for buyers to communicate order changes and routing instructions on buyer managed freight. This change provides new opportunities for processors/manufacturers to better control freight operations when the transportation is managed by the buyer. There is also reporting updates pertaining to the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) Advance Ship Notice Guidance regarding vendor name, temperature recorders, and dispute resolution.

The updated guideline can be accessed here. Note, this is a GS1 US members only resource and will require you to log-in to view.