PTI Compliant Labels Enhance Food Security for The Ones You Love
Remember when you were a kid, and your mom saw you put something in your mouth. “Eww, don’t,” she’d say. “You don’t know where that’s been.”
Well, we’re rapidly approaching a time when you will know where all the fruits and vegetables we provide for our families have been. Thanks to the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI), soon we will have nearly complete accountability of produce throughout the entire supply chain, from “farm to fork.”
This is excellent news. This ability to track the origins and distribution channels of case and pallet shipments will help limit the effects of food-borne illnesses. Armed with such information, we can easily identify the source of a problem.
Produce shipped from a suspected field or facility can be located and removed from stores, and shoppers can purchase remaining items without worry. Less disruption and less harm done to consumers and consumer confidence.
Milestones to PTI Compliant Labels
The initiative outlines seven steps businesses need to follow to achieve full compliance. I’ll go into more detail on these “milestones” in a future post, but basically, they establish a protocol that a company should follow to make sure its systems and procedures deliver the required level of protection.
The “milestones” begin with acquiring a unique company prefix and global identification number for quick and sure identification, and making sure every entity up and down the supply chain recognizes it. Later steps require packers to ensure that each case contains information in both a barcode, and a form readable by humans.
Finally, at every stage, those handling these properly coded cases must have the capacity to read and store information on every case they encounter, both inbound and outbound.
If the Label Doesn’t Stick, the System Doesn’t Work
As I mentioned last week, not all PTI compliant labels are created equal. Throughout the supply chain, labels must adhere to a wide variety of surface materials, since they are applied to cases, crates, bins and more. And they must continue to adhere throughout a wide variety of weather and temperature conditions they encounter along the way, during packing, shipping and handling.
That’s why it is critical to get the right help in moving your company toward PTI compliance. There’s too much riding on these labels to grab just any available printer.
Get Your PTI Compliant Labels
Superior Business Solutions and our partners have extensive experience in designing and printing custom PTI compliant labels that are appropriate for your situation. If you need advice on how to start, or just want to see if you can improve the performance of your labels, let’s have a discussion—I’m happy to help. After all, there’s nothing more important to your business than keeping your customers safe.
