Case Study:
Track and Trace Technologies Lead to Safer Food and Lower Costs
Beef patties, pet food, peanut butter, lettuce and spinach are a few of the contaminated food recalls. One solution is to implement track and trace technologies that follow food products throughout their supply chain, primarily through the use of barcodes and radio frequency identification (RFID). Bar coding and RFID enable the tracking of food through the food supply chain from “farm to fork.” Without the capability to identify the scope of the contamination and contain it, the food recall would be much more extensive than necessary as a safety precaution. For example, when E. coli–tainted spinach was discovered in 2007, using the bar code on a bag of bad spinach, investigators traced its origin to California’s Salinas Valley. But then they had to do an intense and expensive search for the specific grower in that Valley. And during that search time, all spinach was being pulled from grocery stores, distribution plants, and processing plants and destroyed. A growers’ organization estimates the recall cost the spinach industry $74 million. It would have been much faster to Track and Trace Technologies Lead to Safer Food and Lower Costs track the contaminated leaves to the grower if spinach bags and containers had carried RFID tags with complete histories of the contents’ origins. With detailed information, companies can streamline the distribution chain and lower spoilage and contamination rates. Reducing the rates of spoilage and contamination is important for reasons related to safety and costs. Consumer product and retail industries lose about $40 billion annually, or 3.5 percent of their sales, due to supply chain inefficiencies.
Q1. How can food be tracked and traced?
Q2. What costs are reduced during a contaminated food recall if the food has RFID tags?
Q3. How much money is wasted annually due to supply chain inefficiencies?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.