The Expanding Role of Traceability in Seafood: Tools and Key Initiatives

In the last decade, a range of drivers within the seafood sector have incentivized the application of traceability to issues beyond food safety and inventory management. Some of the issues motivating the expanded use of traceability within the global seafood sector include: increased media attention on the legal and social risks within some seafood supply chains, governmental traceability requirements, private‐sector sustainability commitments, and others. This article begins with an overview of these topics in the seafood industry, and why many nongovernment organizations (NGOs), companies, and government actors have turned to traceability as a tool to address them. We discuss how traceability connects to key requirements of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Later, we review the range of traceability services, tools, software solutions, and the due diligence measures that are currently being leveraged within the seafood sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of several NGO‐ and industry‐led traceability initiatives that are examples of seafood traceability improvements.     

Rollout Strategy to Implement Interoperable Traceability in the Seafood Industry

Verifying the accuracy and rigor of data exchanged within and between businesses for the purposes of traceability rests on the existence of effective and efficient interoperable information systems that meet users’ needs. Interoperability, particularly given the complexities intrinsic to the seafood industry, requires that the systems used by businesses operating along the supply chain share a common technology architecture that is robust, resilient, and evolves as industry needs change. Technology architectures are developed through engaging industry stakeholders in understanding why an architecture is required, the benefits provided to the industry and individual businesses and supply chains, and how the architecture will translate into practical results. This article begins by reiterating the benefits that the global seafood industry can capture by implementing interoperable chain‐length traceability and the reason for basing the architecture on a peer‐to‐peer networked database concept versus more traditional centralized or linear approaches. A summary of capabilities that already exist within the seafood industry that the proposed architecture uses is discussed; and a strategy for implementing the architecture is presented. The 6‐step strategy is presented in the form of a critical path.     

Challenges in the Traceability of Seafood

The increasing global trade of foods and animal feeds have to be channelled in right directions to guarantee product safety, transparency and the protection of consumer health. According to this fact the European Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 lays down the common principle for implementing traceability systems in product supply chains. However, seafood is a highly perishable food item which is increasingly global traded so that a lot of particular conditions and difficulties more have to be taken into account compared to other food products. This review discusses the relevant regulations for traceability in seafood and gives a survey about the most important analysis techniques for characterizing seafood.     

Challenges in the Traceability of Seafood

The increasing global trade of foods and animal feeds have to be channelled in right directions to guarantee product safety, transparency and the protection of consumer health. According to this fact the European Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 lays down the common principle for implementing traceability systems in product supply chains. However, seafood is a highly perishable food item which is increasingly global traded so that a lot of particular conditions and difficulties more have to be taken into account compared to other food products. This review discusses the relevant regulations for traceability in seafood and gives a survey about the most important analysis techniques for characterizing seafood. Received: September 17, 2007     

Assessing the Value and Role of Seafood Traceability from an Entire Value‐Chain Perspective

The traceability practices and systems of 48 separate seafood businesses were assessed as part of an evaluation of 9 global seafood value chains (from catch to point of sale to the consumer). The purpose was to gain insights and provide knowledge about the impact of traceability on improving seafood industry business performance, including reducing waste, and enhancing consumer trust. In addition, the project developed and delivered a tool that can be used by stakeholders that are seeking to better understand the return on investment of implementation of traceability practices and solutions. Using structured and semistructured interviews of over 80 individuals, the research revealed that traceability is more highly valued by businesses, regardless of their size, if they engage more often in highly collaborative activities with their suppliers and customers. A survey in 5 nations about consumer perceptions with regards to seafood and the key factors influencing their purchasing decisions delivered insights into the discrete choices that consumers make when buying seafood products. The consumer survey data were incorporated into a “Discrete Choice Simulator” that others can use to compare and contrast the preferences of consumers in these countries and better understand what factors regarding traceability impact on their buying decisions. The research concluded with several recommendations for businesses, governments, and nongovernment organizations.     

A Guidance Document on the Best Practices in Food Traceability

Several regulatory agencies around the world are involved in rulemaking to improve the traceability of foods. Given the complexity of the global food system, guidance on improving traceability practices across the entire food industry is a challenge. A review of the current regulations and best practices indicates that “one back, one forward” is the minimum traceability requirement. There are also no uniform requirements across different food sectors, supply chains, or countries for collection of Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) and Key Data Elements (KDEs). There is a need for standardized and harmonized requirements across all food sectors compared with developing specialized rules and mandates, including exceptions, for specific foods. This document presents food traceability best practices guidance and it addresses the unknowns and gaps in understanding and the broad applicability of a CTE–KDE framework. It applies this framework to 6 food sectors as bakery, dairy, meat and poultry, processed foods, produce, and seafood. An analysis of similarities and differences across these sectors is conducted to determine broader applicability to other foods. Fifty‐five experts from 11 countries were involved in developing this guidance. This guidance document is intended for regulatory agencies and the food industry. Regulators will find it useful in developing regulations and/or guidance applicable to most foods. Industry will find the minimum criteria that are necessary to manage a proper food traceability system, with the understanding that companies can choose to exceed the minimum level of criteria established. This guidance is intended to serve as a step toward consistent baseline requirements for food traceability.     

Project to Develop an Interoperable Seafood Traceability Technology Architecture: Issues Brief

The Interoperable Seafood Traceability Technology Architecture Issues Brief reflects the growing need to establish a global, secure, interoperable support system for seafood traceability. Establishing effective traceability systems relies on the development of a cohesive and consistent approach to the delivery of information technology capabilities and functions. The ability of business to utilize traceability for commercial gain is heavily influenced by the supply chain in which they operate. The Issues Brief describes factors associated with enterprise‐level traceability systems that will impact the design of technology architecture suited to enabling whole chain interoperable traceability. The Brief details why a technology architecture is required, what it means for industry in terms of benefits and opportunities, and how the architecture will translate into practical results. The current situation of many heterogeneous proprietary systems prevents global interoperable traceability from occurring. Utilizing primary research and lessons learned from other industries, the Brief details how the present situation can be addressed. This will enable computerized information systems to communicate syntactically by sharing standardized packages of data. The subsequent stage, semantic interoperability, is achieved by establishing a common language (ontology). The report concludes with a series of recommendations that industry can act upon to design a technology architecture suited to enabling effective global interoperable traceability.     

Seafood Traceability in the United States: Current Trends,System Design,and Potential Applications

Increasing globalization of our food supply combined with recent outbreaks of foodborne disease has heightened concerns over food safety issues around the globe. In response to these growing concerns, both by government and consumers, many nations are looking at food traceability as a means to restore confidence in the food supply and limit damages incurred by the sale and distribution of unsafe products. Traceability, which allows for the tracking of food products through all steps of production, distribution, and sales, can provide information on the nature, origin, and quality of a product; allowing consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions while providing the mechanisms for quick and thorough product recall procedures. Implementing traceablity systems will require improved vertical intergration between entities and the development of standars for the collection and dissemination of traceability data. Fortunately, rapid advances in information technology have made it possible to implement traceability systems within the food industry. This review will explore the current trends toward tracebility in the U.S. seafood industry. Current legislation, both here and abroad, and its effects on the seafood industry will be explored, and the design of a traceability system will be discussed.     

Blockchain technology and traceability in the agrifood industry

Distributed ledgers are becoming commonly used technologies to trace agrifood supply chains in view of their safety, immutability, transparency, and scalability. In the present review, we discuss the most relevant case studies of agrifood supply chain traceability using blockchain (BC) and other distributed ledgers technologies. Considering that each supply chain actually has specific requests of traceability, we here suggest a logical scheme in order to favor the identification of the BC structure that is more appropriate for each agrifood supply chain, including the identification of supply chains where complex BC technologies are actually not necessary.     

Implementing Interoperability in the Seafood Industry: Learning from Experiences in Other Sectors

Interoperability of communication and information technologies within and between businesses operating along supply chains is being pursued and implemented in numerous industries worldwide to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operations. The desire for greater interoperability is also driven by the need to reduce business risk through more informed management decisions. Interoperability is achieved by the development of a technology architecture that guides the design and implementation of communication systems existing within individual businesses and between businesses comprising the supply chain. Technology architectures are developed through a purposeful dialogue about why the architecture is required, the benefits and opportunities that the architecture offers the industry, and how the architecture will translate into practical results. An assessment of how the finance, travel, and health industries and a sector of the food industry—fresh produce—have implemented interoperability was conducted to identify lessons learned that can aid the development of interoperability in the seafood industry. The findings include identification of the need for strong, effective governance during the establishment and operation of an interoperability initiative to ensure the existence of common protocols and standards. The resulting insights were distilled into a series of principles for enabling syntactic and semantic interoperability in any industry, which we summarize in this article. Categorized as “structural,” “operational,” and “integrative,” the principles describe requirements and solutions that are pivotal to enabling businesses to create and capture value from full chain interoperability. The principles are also fundamental to allowing governments and advocacy groups to use traceability for public good.     

How to Determine the Geographical Origin of Seafood?

Traceability of seafood is a much needed service for the seafood industry. Current ways of tracing seafood are minimal while tracing of shellfish is nearly nonexistent. Tracing fish and shellfish are necessary for indicating where the fish and shellfish were fished from, farmed and packed from. This study reviews history of traceability of aquaculture and analytical approaches to verify the origin of seafood. It then describes the new molecular technique of the traceability by using PCR-DGGE to discriminate the geographical origin of fish (cases studies of Pangasius fish from Viet Nam and Sea bass fish from France) by analysis the DNA fragments of microorganisms (bacteria) on fish. This method is based on the assumption that the microbial communities of food are specific to a geographic area.     

The seafood supply chain from a fraudulent perspective

Food fraud is an intentional act for economic gain. It poses a risk to food integrity, the economy, public health and consumers’ ethics. Seafood is one commodity which has endured extensive fraudulent activity owing to its increasing consumer demand, resource limitations, high value and complex supply chains. It is essential that these fraudulent opportunities are revealed, the risk is evaluated and countermeasures for mitigation are assigned. This can be achieved through mapping of the seafood supply chains and identifying the vulnerability analysis critical control points (VACCP), which can be exposed, infiltrated and exploited for fraudulent activity. This research systematically maps the seafood supply chain for three key commodities: finfish, shellfish and crustaceans in the United Kingdom. Each chain is comprised of multiple stakeholders across numerous countries producing a diverse range of products distributed globally. For each supply chain the prospect of fraud, with reference to species substitution, fishery substitution, illegal, unreported and unregulated substitution, species adulteration, chain of custody abuse, catch method fraud, undeclared product extension, modern day slavery and animal welfare, has been identified and evaluated. This mapping of the fraudulent opportunities within the supply chains provides a foundation to rank known and emerging risks and to develop a proactive mitigation plan which assigns control measures and responsibility where vulnerabilities exist. Further intelligence gathering and management of VACCPs of the seafood supply chains may deter currently unknown or unexposed fraudulent opportunities.     

SEAFOODplus – how to provide health promoting, safe seafood of high eating quality to consumers

The strategic objective of the SEAFOODplus Integrated Project is to reduce health problems and to increase well-being among European consumers by applying the benefits obtained through consumption of health promoting and safe seafood products of high eating quality. The relevance of seafood in the diet to diminish the increased incidences of e.g. cardiovascular, cancer and inflammatory diseases is being assessed by performing dietary intervention and epidemiological studies. Other focus areas are health of young populations, to treat overweight, to prevent osteoporosis and postpartum depression observed for women giving birth. Seafood’s importance for consumer behaviour and well-being is assessed to understand determinants of consumers’ seafood consumption and to adapt seafood products to consumer demands. The objectives of the seafood safety component are to make seafood safe for the consumer, by identifying risk factors and avoiding risks caused by viral and bacterial contamination and biogenic amines in seafood. The total value chain is addressed by developing consumer driven tailor-made, functional seafood products to improve health and to ensure nutritional quality and safety by full utilisation of raw materials from aquaculture and from traditional fisheries. The aquaculture component will study the effects of dietary modulation, husbandry, fish physiology, genetics and pre-slaughter conditions. Validated traceability systems are assessed to make it possible to apply a total chain approach from the live fish to the consumer product, and to trace back any feature from fork to farm. Received: January 7, 2008; accepted January 8, 2008     

Modeling traceability information and functionality requirement in export-oriented tilapia chain

BACKGROUND: Tilapia has been named as the ‘food fish of the 21st century’ and has become the most important farmed fish. China is the world leader in tilapia production and export. Identifying information and functional requirements is critical in developing an efficient traceability system because traceability has become a fundamental prerequisite for exporting aquaculture products. RESULTS: This paper examines the export‐oriented tilapia chains and information flow in the chains, and identifies the key actors, information requirements and information‐capturing points. Unified Modeling Language (UML) technology is adopted to describe the information and functionality requirement for chain traceability. The barriers of traceability system adoption are also identified. CONCLUSION: The results show that the traceability data consist of four categories that must be recorded by each link in the chain. The functionality requirement is classified into four categories from the fundamental information record to decisive quality control; the top three barriers to the traceability system adoption are: high costs of implementing the system, lack of experienced and professional staff; and low level of government involvement and support. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

GS1牛肉全程质量追溯系统框架研究

GS1 是EAN/UCC 的新名字,由编码体系、可自动识别的数据载体和电子数据交换标准组成的全球统一标准。本文基于GS1 标准,针对“源头”追溯、标准化、动态数据共享等难题,搭建了牛肉全过程质量追溯系统的通用框架。框架中个体标识采用RFID 耳标与EAN/UCC 条码,RFID 耳标编码采用EPCglobal 标签数据标准;各流通环节的信息服务器采用三层架构：访问层、业务层、资源层,异构分布架设,以HTTP/SOAP 协议提供用户访问接口;采用信息发现服务结合对象名服务,定位动态分布的信息服务器,实现动态数据共享。     

Food safety in global supply chains: A literature review

This paper aimed to revisit the literature on food safety in global supply chains and analyze the evolution and contemporary challenges in this research field. It conducted a systematic literature review in two steps based on a selection of 178 articles. It analyzed safety in food supply chains using the Six T's Framework to evaluate food safety management. In the supply chain literature, traceability was the most studied element of the original framework. The research identified studies that have incorporated the topics of “tactics” and “targets” in their analysis of safety in supply chains. This article presented an expanded framework, a tool for categorizing research, and areas for advancement in the identification of quality indicators in global food chains for the current research agenda. The paper contributed theoretically to the discussion of safety elements in food supply chains and incorporated new elements into the originally conceived framework. Thus, it helped to delineate the research field and opened up an agenda for future research.     

DNA‐Based Methods for the Identification of Commercial Fish and Seafood Species

ABSTRACT: The detection of species substitution has become an important topic within the food industry and there is a growing need for rapid, reliable, and reproducible tests to verify species in commercial fish and seafood products. Increases in international trade and global seafood consumption, along with fluctuations in the supply and demand of different fish and seafood species, have resulted in intentional product mislabeling. The effects of species substitution are far‐reaching and include economic fraud, health hazards, and illegal trade of protected species. To improve detection of commercial seafood fraud, a variety of DNA‐based techniques have been developed, including Multiplex PCR, FINS, PCR‐RFLP, PCR‐RAPD, PCR‐AFLP, and PCR‐SSCP, which are all based on polymorphisms in the genetic codes of different species. These techniques have been applied in the differentiation of many types of fish and seafood species, such as gadoids, salmonids, scombroids, and bivalves. Some emerging technologies in this field include the use of real‐time PCR, lab‐on‐a‐chip, and DNA microarray chips. In this review article, the major DNA‐based methods currently employed in the authentication of commercial fish and seafood species are discussed and future trends are highlighted. Examples of commercial applications and the use of online database resources are also considered.     

An RFID application in the food supply chain: A case study of convenience stores in Taiwan

Food hazards can appear at any stage of global food supply chains, making it essential to define critical control points to capture the data about ingredients, manufacture and dates-certain (sell-by, use-by), etc., and provide it in a transparent manner to supply chain participants and consumers. The government of Taiwan has appointed a non-profit research organization to conduct a pilot project to launch a potential national-wide food traceability system to increase the intangible value of purchased food and to enhance food safety. This paper discusses a financially viable business model for a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) application to a food traceability system. We conduct a case study of RFID implementation in the chain of convenience stores in Taiwan. The Taiwanese experiment may have implications for policy-makers, industry and public health officials elsewhere.     

Granularity and its importance for traceability in a farmed salmon supply chain

Identifying the optimal granularity level of traceable units is necessary when implementing traceability of food. This study examines granularity in a farmed salmon supply chain through the qualitative methods interview, observation, and document analysis. The results show that fish feed and farmed salmon can have fine or coarse granularity of the batches. Fine granularity will give large numbers and smaller batch sizes. Coarse granularity will give fewer numbers and bigger batch sizes. The granularity correlates to different levels depending on the application of information within a company and between companies in supply chains.     

Modeling traceability information in soybean value chains

Identification of the information to be recorded is the most important requirement for developing an effective traceability system. In this paper, we present a soybean value chain and model the information capture by three links in the chain including the farming, bulk handling and processing sectors. Internal information capture points were identified for each sector and the corresponding traceability information to be recorded was determined. In-depth analyses were conducted for a soybean elevator and an oil and meal processor to determine the importance of traceability information from their perspective. A lot of information is available at different links in the soybean value chain. The method presented here can be used to create a standardized list of data elements that need to be recorded internally or exchanged with other links in the chain. A UML class diagram is developed to represent a method for modeling the product, process, quality and transformation information at any link in the chain. Finally, some suitable technologies for electronic information exchange within the food supply chains are presented.