Potato Grower

TRACE IT BACK Where'd That Come From? Decreasing risk with the Produce Traceability Initiative The mission of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is simple: to help your business fight risk. Headlines with words like "disease," "recall" and "potato" can spread as quickly as the pathogen in question—and shielding your company's brand from that kind of attention and accusation involves a proactive, preventive set of measures. The evolution of the PTI is impressive and lengthy, but its first two years are especially interesting. In 2006, the tragic spinach crisis left the produce industry desperately looking for security. The 40 Potato Grower | JANUARY 2014 length of time it took investigators to locate the source of the outbreak caused the entire category to be recalled, rocking consumer confidence. In 2007, industry members asked associations to develop a more effective system for whole chain traceability, resulting in the Produce Traceability Initiative led by the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA), United Fresh Produce Association and later GS1 US. That same year, a foodborne illness stressed the need for more accurate traceback investigations when tomatoes By Ashley Boucher The goal of the PTI is to ensure consumer confidence, thereby reducing risk for every business along the supply chain. were inaccurately condemned for an outbreak for which the commodity wasn't responsible. The PTI's vision is to achieve standardized, electronic traceability across the supply chain. Each handler in the supply chain likely already has its own internal traceability system, but the initiative's solution calls for adapting those systems to track two common pieces of

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