COLD CHAIN
Digitisation is critical for the future of a successful cold chain There is a growing need for the digitisation of freight transactions to provide supply chain visibility and improve freight management. Food & Beverage Industry News reports.
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roducers and manufacturers lose visibility of their product as soon as it goes into the back of a truck, and from there they have no idea how the product is kept, distributed, or stored. As an example, manufacturers and producers have no idea if the product sits on a loading dock outside of its core temperature, or for how long. A solution to the issue around traceability can be provided through real-time visibility and interoperability of systems. This means if there is a breach in the cold chain, stakeholders are alerted, and decisions can be made quickly to re-route the produce to another temperature-controlled room so transport providers can ensure the cold chain integrity is upheld while shelf life is kept to the optimum.
Chain of custody At a recent National GS1 Traceability Advisory Group (NGTAG) industry event in October of 2021, Professor Pierre Pienaar, president of World Packaging Organization, said a singular ownership over temperature was needed. “Multiple ownership of temperature can lead to lack of temperature control and avoidance of responsibility. With single ownership of temperature there is a clear responsibility,” he said. “If food is stored and transported at correct temperatures, losses are reduced and shelf life achieved.” There is an opportunity for temperature management, which means the value of data loggers and temperature loggers, or sensors, are being realised. Uniquely identifying the sensor and the pallet, or logistics unit, using GS1 data standards and temperature control can be linked to the products’ specifications, allowing conditions to be measured, documented, and analysed throughout the supply chain.
Digitisation is being used to strengthen the cold chain by creating stronger traceability. This action links the information to the physical movement of the goods and allows critical decisions to be made to re-direct and reduce food waste if a breach occurs. Meanwhile, in track and trace systems, with the use of global data standards and sensors, a link to a product batch, pack date, tertiary packaging, outer packaging, or logistics unit, can be made. Care must also be taken to enable temperature tracking to be maintained if the logistics unit is broken down and the outer packaging is aggregated into another logistics unit.
The Cherry Project A trial is currently under way to assess a digital traceability system’s ability to help manage food supply chains in natural disasters, or biosecurity and food safety breaches. The project is a collaboration between the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Food Agility CRC, Woolworths, FreshChain Systems, GS1 Australia and Cherry Growers Australia. In the 2019 bushfires, regulators
26 Food&Beverage Industry News | April 2022 | www.foodmag.com.au
needed immediate information about which agricultural properties were threatened, and where food was in the supply chain. It took time to collate that information, and in an emergency, time is critical. The tested technology allows regulators and retailers to access information about farms and what they are growing, as well as real-time data about where products are in the supply chain. Knowing which property grows what, and having information flow electronically through the supply chain, improves response time and efficiency. Using unique global property identification and linking to property master data via the National Location Registry (NLR), GS1 hopes to reduce the time it takes to identify the property and product in the event of a natural disaster, biosecurity incursion or food safety breach. By monitoring the cold supply chain using GS1 standards, as well as data carriers and property master data, the company can demonstrate
that it can link the actual punnet of cherries to a particular cherry orchard for traceability. Other outcomes GS1 is expecting to report on includes greater consumer protection, a reduction in unnecessary recalls and an improved supply chain. The report will be released in September 2022.
Importance of NLR The implementation of the Global Location Number (GLN) in Australia is also supported by the National Location Registry (NLR), a central registry of location master data that allows for the creation, validation and syndication of key information related to properties and facilities across industry and government. The registry has been developed by GS1 Australia, with funding support from the Commonwealth, and is supported as an industry solution on a not-for-profit basis. Some data attributes that can be provided for each location record includes trading or operating hours for peak periods, safety constraints on site, driver amenities, and weight and
