The produce industry has been experiencing a push from both consumers and the Federal government for case level traceability of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Produce Traceback Initiative is a document aimed at promoting standardized efficient case level traceability by 2012. This is a mighty task that will require a major overhaul of current practices. To reach the various milestones that the Produce Traceability Initiative sets forth will require significant investment from growers, shippers, and packers of fresh fruits and vegetables. However, this investment should lead to some increased efficiencies in processing metrics, and a dramatic improvement in the investigation of food safety incidents.

The promotion of the Produce Traceback Initiative comes at a time when consumer confidence in the food supply is at a low point. This lack of confidence was created by the recent food borne illness outbreak of E. coli in fresh spinach. This outbreak was not linked to spinach in a timely manner and was wrongly associated with tomatoes. This caused tremendous economic hard ship to tomato growers across the nation. Another outbreak without an efficient system to traceback the source will lead to a huge market loss and even a bigger drop in consumer confidence.

For more information on the Produce Traceback Initiative please reference this white paper at the FreshQC.com website.