Traceability tool development for food safety

The capacity to trace the origins of food and feed ingredients and food sources, especially when products are found to be defective, is known as traceability. From primary production through consumption, a traceability system allows an organization to document and find a product through the phases and processes involved in the manufacture, processing, distribution, and handling of feed and food. Therefore, it can help identify the reason for a product's nonconformity, enhance the capacity to withdraw or recall the product if necessary, and prevent dangerous items from reaching customers. Traceability in the food supply chain is motivated by various variables or forces .

Traceability tools and technology solutions

Product identification, data capture, analysis, storage, transmission, and overall system integration all necessitate technology. These technologies include both hardware (such as measurement equipment, identifying tags, and labels) and software (information systems). Information and computer technology advancements for information systems management; scanning and other digital technology for Food product development, image capture, storage, and display; nondestructive testing and biosensors for quality and safety assessment; and geospatial technologies (Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), Remote Sensing (RS)) for mobile assets tracking and site-specific operations, are innovations in technology that can be used in a traceability system. Essentially, a product traceability system necessitates the identification of all physical entities (and places) from where the product originates, i.e., where it is processed, packaged, and stocked, as well as every agent in the supply chain.

Table 1 provides a review of the basic technological instruments available for developing traceable supply chains. Several technologies that complement identification for verification exist, notably in the cattle business. Future advances in DNA finger-printing, nanotechnology for miniature machines, iris scanning, nose-print matching, facial recognition, retinal imaging, and their integration into the plant and livestock industries have the potential to improve the speed and precision of food traceability significantly.

Table 1: Technical instrument for traceability

Technology

Explanation

Advantage

Disadvantage

Alphanumeric

codes

A label with a series of numbers and letters of varying sizes has been replaced with a bar code.

Simple to use and cost-effective

• The reading and writing of code are not done automatically.
• Ineffectiveness
• Data corruption with a high integrity
• There aren't any standards.
• There is a lack of connection between the key entities.
• Environmental data cannot be gathered (no sensing capability)

Bar codes

• Data representation in an optical form that is machine-readable

• Alphanumeric characters are encoded using vertical bars, spaces, squares, and dots.

Simple, cost-effective, and precise traceability

• Line of sight is required for reading.
• Labels that have been damaged are unreadable.
• The scanner can only read one at a time.
• Environmental data cannot be gathered (no sensing capability)

Radio Frequency

Identification (RFID)

• Detect the existence of items that have been tagged.
• Radio waves can be used to identify or track.

• When reading, there is no line of sight.
• Tags can be read and written
• Larger memory and higher data rate
• Tags that are reversible and can read several tags at the same time

• The reader should be used to collect data.
• A tag can't start a conversation.
• There is no device collaboration.
• Data may be read in a single hop.
• Cost is still an issue.
• Environmental sensing capacity is limited.

Wireless Sensor

Network

• Collect sensory data from physical or environmental factors.

• Sensors for sensing and monitoring are available in a variety of configurations.

• In-network processing, multihop networking
• Can use a variety of network topologies
• node-to-node communication that is secure
• Longer ranges of reading
• Sensor-actuator communication

• Not appropriate for use as a means of identification,
• Continuous sensing necessitates the use of energy-saving methods.

Conclusion

The consumer segment is equally essential in terms of food safety. Therefore traceability should be extended to consumers. It is obvious that traceability has a cost. Finally, if market forces, customer demand, and government laws all come together to promote a new level of supply chain visibility, food traceability from "farm to fork" will become a reality.