Effective traceability management: the global track&trace system

Abstract

The evolution of the information technologies and their impact in human life promotes an increasing demand of reliable information when security and safety plays a primary role. Nowadays, food traceability represents one of the main concerns for public authorities and industries. In particular, traceability has become a critical part of the agro-food industry. The aim of the agro-food traceability is to allow the full monitoring of a product in the supply chain and to trace the history of a good from the producer to the consumer. It is therefore a preventive instrument of quality and safety management. The proposed research study is oriented to the definition of a new Global Track and Trace (T&T) System in which the entire world’s partners of a product’s supply chain are involved. In this system the functionalities of a conventional traceability system are combined with the functionalities of a Food Ontology for the traceability domain. The Food Ontology is defined in order to solve the issue of information-systems integration and standardization. The idea is to recover and to have available in a short time period all the relevant information about a product. This is a critical issue especially in case of foodborne outbreak and food crisis. The proposed framework can be a strategic approach for information and process management, also at the farm level. The model permits the Supply Chain optimization and the food quality management. The system itself can be a valuable tool for assuring customers and promoting the liability of the production process, along with the compliance with the regulatory standards aimed at defining quality and safety requirements.