Step 3: Decide how and where to collect data
Effective traceability provides information about a product’s journey from the farm to the end consumer.
Knowing the key points in your supply chain will help you decide how to collect and share information about a product as it moves through the supply chain. This could include the physical location of a product, or the temperature where the product is located, or even the amount of time a product spends at a location.
Deciding how information will be collected and recorded is an important step in traceability. Take a look at the Traceability quick start guide for more information.
Narrator:
To record traceability data understanding the product’s journey through the supply chain is key.
Let’s say your drivers are product, safety and biosecurity. By tracking spray application or the temperature of goods during production, you can avoid risks.
And ensure the proper processes are being followed.
Continue to Step 4 or visit our website for more information.
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What to consider when deciding how to collect data
To help decide how and where to collect data, it’s important to understand:
- Key drivers of traceability that are important to your business
- Focus on one or two drivers such as food safety, biosecurity, market access, provenance, attributes or efficiencies.
- Information that you and your supply chain partners need to know about the product
- What data do you need to receive about the product or batch being tracked and why do you need that information
- For example, knowing spray application information for fresh produce may help a distributor decide where to send certain produce, especially to international markets that have chemical residue requirements.
- The systems that your supply chain partners use to log and trace a product
- The wholesaler may use a barcode scanning system to record stock as it’s received and then dispatched. For example, if all partners are using GS1 data standards, this may simplify the transfer of information between systems, potentially reducing errors and the time taken for manual data entry