Blockchain for Produce: Building on the Foundation of Case Traceability

Traceability is not new to growers and thanks to the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI), neither is the concept of making produce traceability visible across the entire supply chain. When the PTI was introduced in 2008 we used the term whole chain traceability; this meant the grower would apply a label with case traceability information on it and at each subsequent step in the supply chain the receiver would scan and record this information on inbound receipts and outbound shipments. Being a voluntary initiative, the major grower-shippers, distributors, and retails supported the initiative. The PTI Leadership council was formed and case labeling specifications were published. Many of the large grower-shippers have converted their internal traceability systems to the GS1 standards-based case traceability labeling of PTI to enable external traceability.

In the early days, several retailers sent letters to their produce suppliers requesting PTI labeling, but compliance was either voluntary or not enforced.  In June of 2013, Walmart stepped forward to notify produce suppliers that they had to have PTI case labels on product shipped to them by January 2014. 

Walmart continues to be the leader in produce traceability within the United States, and they are leveraged the PTI case labels to get there. In July of 2017, they started requiring produce suppliers to provide Advance Ship Notifications (ASN’s) using the PTI case labels to capture which lot numbers were received on each line item of the order. To my knowledge, Walmart is the only major of US retailer that  scans pallet Serialized Shipping Container Codes (SSCC) from ASN’s as part of their distribution center process and PTI case labels as part of their in-store process. In January of 2019, Walmart started requiring all leafy green suppliers to write their shipment  case traceability information to the IBM Food Trust blockchain. Further, they have asked the leafy green suppliers for traceability back to the farm by September. Walmart will require other commodities to be written to the blockchain in the future. They are also engaging other retailers to join the blockchain movement to strengthen food traceability across the retail segment.

Case labeling is here to stay and while other retailers may be slow in getting their systems in place, they are coming. Grower-shippers and distributors will need to either get on board or pack and sell their products through those that have case labeling.

About the author Todd Baggett:

Our founder and CEO, Todd Baggett, is on the PMA Blockchain Committee and is the Co-Chair of the PTI Technology Working Group. He is actively working to help our industry with this transition.

© RedLine Solutions Inc. 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to RedLine Solutions and there is the inclusion of a link to www.blockchainforproduce.com. All rights reserved. RedLine Solutions name and logo, referred to in this document, are trademarks of RedLine Solutions Inc.

Blockchain for Produce: Moving into Production

If you are in the Produce Industry, you have been hearing a lot about blockchain in the last year. Blockchain is the hot topic for industry publications, trade association meetings, and education sessions at conferences. When the largest retailer in the world stated they were moving to blockchain, the industry took notice.

In September of 2018, Walmart sent leafy green suppliers a letter informing them of the Walmart Food Traceability Initiative. This initiative stated that direct suppliers needed to send Walmart “one-step back” information via the blockchain by January 31st, 2019. It further stated that leafy green suppliers are to provide complete end-to-end traceability back to the farm by September 2019. At this point, Walmart has not set the requirement of blockchain traceability information for other commodities, but it is fair to assume they are coming.

So, what exactly is the blockchain? One of the best descriptions I have heard goes like this: think of the supply chain as being made of blocks. Each participant in the supply chain is represented by a block. If I am the grower shipper, I capture who the grower was, which lot was harvested, and on what date. When I pack the product, I add additional information of the pack date, lot number, and specific brand and pack style (GTIN) information. When I ship the product, I include the receiver’s order information and write all this information to my block through the blockchain platform provider. This data cannot be erased or changed. If I made a mistake, I write additional information to my block.

The receiver of my shipment will record their receipt of my product. If the receiver is a distributor (or re-packer), they capture my source information, which becomes an input to the product they will ship, and they write the details of the order to their block and what was shipped to their block in the chain. Now as Walmart receives the product at their distribution center for shipments to individual stores, the PTI case labels are used to track what was shipped to which store and that is recorded in the blockchain.

With each block in the supply chain writing its information to the chain, the ability to track any given lot from its source to the store takes a matter of seconds instead of days. In the event of a serious foodborne illness, suspected lots and where they are in the supply chain information can be identified quickly and removed from commerce. This ability to quickly identify and act could save lives and prevent illnesses. This level of responsiveness should also eliminate the need for commodity-wide recalls like we saw with Romaine Lettuce in 2018. These commodity-wide recalls are a high cost to all growers of that product, erode customer confidence and often have a lasting effect on the consumption volume of that commodity.

About the author Todd Baggett:

Our founder and CEO, Todd Baggett, is on the PMA Blockchain Committee and is the Co-Chair of the PTI Technology Working Group. He is actively working to help our industry with this transition.

© RedLine Solutions Inc. 2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to RedLine Solutions and there is the inclusion of a link to www.blockchainforproduce.com. All rights reserved. RedLine Solutions name and logo, referred to in this document, are trademarks of RedLine Solutions Inc.

If you would like more information, contact us here.

Blockchain for Produce: The Future of Food Safefy, How RedLine Solutions is Ahead of the Game.

You've probably heard about blockchain in that it's a secure way of recording public transactions of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereuim. Now, large companies like Walmart want in on the action, but not with cryptocurrencies, but with produce.

Walmart has recently announced that it will be working with IBM FoodTrust and Centricity to create a food safety "blockchain" that will require all produce providers to write data in to their blockchain system by September 2019.

This is a huge step towards food safety and traceability that eventually all major suppliers of produce will soon follow. A Blockchain for Produce will improve the speed of action in stopping major E.Coli outbreaks from spreading by pin-pointing exactly where an infected batch of produce is in a matter of seconds, potentially preventing thousands of illnesses and even deaths.

To do this, the blockchain platform would share data only with known participants, for example; the grower shipper will be a member of the retailer's block chain and will use their credentials to write data to the shared ledger. This data will include product and lot information of their shipments to that retailer. The retailer will be able to see which lots were shipped to which distribution center or store and be able to do a lookup on any given lot to know where it was shipped within seconds when a quality or food safety issue occurs. In addition to visibility, the blockchain platform providers can tie activities, such as receipts, to electronically fulfill contracts, such as initiate payments. 

RedLine Solutions provides the first mile of the blockchain. We capture the grower and lot data on receipts, packing, and shipments and will write that data to the blockchain that is used by receivers of the product. The produce industry requirements and challenges for blockchain are being worked on now and some early pilots have been completed with more on the way.

Blockchain is enabled by case level traceability we established in the PTI. As a leader in produce inventory and traceability systems RedLine Solutions has been capturing and managing this data for the past decade. We can already send Advance Ship Notice (ASN) information and as blockchain platforms evolve we will be writing this data into the various block chain ledgers.

RedLine Solutions will have the ability to write our customers data to blockchain ledgers prior to the Walmart deadlines. We anticipate running our own pilots in Q2 of 2019.

About the Author Todd Baggett

Our founder and CEO, Todd Baggett, is on the PMA Blockchain Committee and is the Co-Chair of the PTI Technology Working Group. He is actively working to help our industry with this transition.

If you would like more information, contact us here.

Produce Grower Magazine Summary link: http://www.producegrower.com/article/familiarize-yourself-with-blockchain/

© RedLine Solutions Inc. 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to RedLine Solutions and there is the inclusion of a link to www.blockchainforproduce.com. All rights reserved. RedLine Solutions name and logo, referred to in this document, are trademarks of RedLine Solutions Inc.