DC Velocity - September 2011

related media, offers options such as rugged mobile printers or fixed printers that could be mounted in a vehicle, along with label stock able to hold up under rainy or wet conditions.

Don Blanton, manager of product marketing for Intermec, cites one customer, Washington Fruit & Produce, that uses Intermec scanners and bar-code technology from Washington-based Pacific ID to ship more than 3 million apples a day. The bar codes and readers enable the company to determine the orchard of origin for the apples and provide to-the-minute data on when the fruit was packed, he says.

Blanton adds that further enhancements are under way. He reports that technology in the works will allow GPS location information to be integrated into bar-code data. “We’re working with several partners on the end game,” he says. The goal, he says, is to be able to scan a bar code and know the full history of a case of produce back to where and when it was picked. “We are not quite there yet, but the produce growers are taking the initiative,” he says.

In the meantime, developers continue to work on scanners and reading devices that will serve multiple purposes. Thomas Heitman, manager of solutions consulting for systems integrator Peak Technologies, says, “What we really need within the same device is a combination of bar codes that identify the product along with connectivity outside of the four walls—in the truck or in the field— and GPS connectivity that can track where a vehicle has been and track product onto and off the truck. You don’t want a person to have five or six things hanging on a belt. One thing is much easier and more cost effective.”

HITTING THE MILESTONES As for where the initiative stands to date, PTI leaders say the produce industry is well on its way to meeting its 2012 goals of achieving supply chain-wide electronic traceability of every case of produce. Earlier this year, a PTI survey of its Leadership Council member companies showed 79 percent of participants throughout the supply chain—growers, packers, shippers, retailers, wholesalers,

and foodservice firms—were on track to hit PTI milestones by next year.

Applying labels in the field may be
a small part of the broader effort to
ensure a safe food supply chain. But
the ability to capture chain-of-cus-
tody data back to the field and
orchard should provide an impor-
tant tool to investigators and the
industry alike. ;

Editor’s note: For more info on the PTI and labeling requirements for growers, visit www.producetrace-ability.org.

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