Track-and-trace Technology for Fresh Produce

The last year consumers have been facing large produce safety recall incidents (salmonella and E.coli).

Tomatoes were said to be the culprit, were pointed at, and took the blame, although they (probably) never made anyone sick. And while consumers stayed away from potentially ‘killer tomatoes’, the industry lost a lot of money. Panic leapt from one produce category to another with every new announcement, as neither the FDA nor the industry were able to come up with the source of the disaster.

But tell me, what exactly was the problem? Still, there is no answer, but even without the answer, what is this dreadful debacle teaching us?

In spite of the millions of dollars growers and processors have invested in state-of-the-art clean facilities and HACCP practices – consumers are facing recalls, and left in the dark in terms of information. Which is the brand of tomatoes that can be trusted to be safe? Where is the information that tells consumers from where the produce is originated. Brand identity with additional product information would be a good thing.

This leads to brand-protection technologies.

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