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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

DNA barcoding detects market substitution in North American seafood

Seafood authentication and food safety concerns are a growing issue in today’s global marketplace, although traditional morphology-based identification keys and existing molecular approaches have limitations for species identification. Recently, DNA barcoding has gained support as a rapid, cost-effective and broadly applicable molecular diagnostic technique for this purpose. However, the maturity of the barcode database as a tool for seafood authentication has yet to be tested using real market samples. The present case study was undertaken for this reason. Though the database is undergoing continual development, it was able to provide species matches of >97% sequence similarity for 90 of 91 samples tested. Twenty-five percent of the samples were potentially mislabeled, demonstrating that DNA barcodes are already a powerful tool for the identification of seafood to the species level. We conclude that barcodes have broad applicability for authenticity testing and the phylogeographic patterning of genetic diversity can also inform aspects of traceability.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Current Barriers to Large‐scale Interoperability of Traceability Technology in the Seafood Sector

Interoperability is a critical component of full‐chain digital traceability, but is almost nonexistent in the seafood industry. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodology, this study explores the barriers impeding progress toward large‐scale interoperability among digital traceability systems in the seafood sector from the perspectives of seafood companies, technology vendors, and supply chains as a whole. We highlight lessons from recent research and field work focused on implementing traceability across full supply chains and make some recommendations for next steps in terms of overcoming challenges and scaling current efforts.     

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.     

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.     

Traceability of mussel (Mytilus chilensis) in southern Chile using microsatellite molecular markers and assignment algorithms. Exploratory survey

The international seafood trade has adopted the food chain or “from farm to fork” concept in terms of standards and regulations regarding food quality, safety and authenticity, from primary production to the consumer. This has led to an increasing need for traceability, but administrative traceability systems (physical labeling, information recording and automatic data treatment) are not flawless and require validation through analytical procedures. Currently, DNA-based methods used for species identification and population genetics, coupled with allocation algorithms can be used to verify administrative traceability systems. We evaluated the potential of a panel of nine microsatellite markers combined with allocation algorithms for their ability to assign Mytilus individuals from southern Chile to their geographical origin, evaluating the performance of four assignment methods: genetic distance and frequency-based criteria and a Bayesian based method using prior information or not. The reallocation test showed that the Bayesian method with prior information performed best. When tested with a real traceability verification case, the frequency-based algorithm showed the best results, re-allocating individuals to their original population at least 6 times more often than individuals from other locations in a challenging scenario with low genetic differentiation among locations. In order to apply this allocation method for traceability purposes, it would be necessary to strengthen this SSR panel with more informative loci and complement it with SNP markers.     

The TraceFood Framework – Principles and guidelines for implementing traceability in food value chains

Requirements related to food safety and associated legislation and certification have increased a lot in recent years. Among these are the requirements for systematic recordings to be made throughout the supply chain so that in case of a food crisis it is possible to trace back to source of contamination, and to perform a targeted recall of potentially affected food items. These systematic recordings must be connected to the food items through unique identifiers, and the recordings, the identifiers and the documentation of how ingredients and food items join or split up as they move through the supply chain is what constitutes a traceability system. For the food industry, the traceability system is also an important tool for controlling and optimizing production, for getting better industrial statistics and better decisions, and for profiling desirable product characteristics. Current status is that many food producers have good, often electronic traceability systems internally, but exchange (especially electronic exchange) of information between the links in the supply chain is very time-consuming or difficult due to the diversity and proprietary nature of the respective internal systems. To facilitate electronic interchange of this type of data, an international, non-proprietary standard is needed; one that describes how messages can be constructed, sent and received and also how the data elements in the messages should be identified, measured and interpreted. The TraceFood Framework was designed for this purpose, and it contains recommendations for “Good Traceability Practice”, common principles for unique identification of food items, a common generic standard for electronic exchange of traceability information (TraceCore XML), and sector-specific ontologies where the meaning and the inter-relationship of the data elements is defined. The TraceFood Framework is a joint collaboration of many EU-funded projects dealing with traceability of food products; especially the integrated project TRACE where most of the work related to specification, design and testing of the framework has taken place.     

食品链质量安全追溯体系的建立

2015年实施新修订的《食品安全法》中第42条规定:"国家应建立食品安全全程追溯制度"。随着食品工业化的发展和消费者对食品安全要求的提高,建立食品全程追溯系统,对于不安全食品的召回以及查找食品链中的不安全问题点将起到非常重大作用,已成为食品安全保障工作的重要措施。根据追溯涉及到的食品供应链组织,可以将追溯划分为内部追溯和外部追溯。食品链中食品生产加工环节的追溯就属于内部追溯,目前我国较多食品企业尚未建立完整的食品安全管理体系且自动化程度较低,另外我国食品企业生产的食品种类繁多,缺少指导性文件导致内部追溯存在较大的困难。本文对食品生产加工环节追溯的现状与发展进行概述,建议通过健全同类产品追溯系统以及提高食品企业自动化程度建立完善的企业内部追溯系统,以更好地保障食品安全工作。     

畜产品质量安全可追溯体系发展研究进展

畜产品质量安全问题频发,如瘦肉精猪肉、黄浦江“漂猪”、北京“美容猪蹄”、三聚氰胺乳粉及马肉风波等,不仅严重威胁到人民的健康,而且在相当程度上制约了我国畜牧产业的健康、可持续发展。食品质量安全可追溯体系是食品质量安全管理的重要手段,然而,我国食品安全可追溯体系发展较晚,仍存在很多问题。本文通过分析欧盟、美国、澳大利亚等国家食品可追溯体系建设的特点和经验,针对我国畜产品可追溯体系建设中存在的问题提出建议,为保障我国畜产品质量安全及畜牧业的健康发展提供参考。     

我国食品安全预警体系和溯源体系发展现状及建议

建立和发展食品安全预警体系和溯源体系,是提高我国食品安全与风险管理水平的要求,是全球食品安全管理的发展趋势。本文着重论述了我国食品安全预警体系和溯源体系的发展现状,针对存在的问题提出了一些切实建议。     

湘冷链——基于区块链的冷链溯源系统

目的：解决传统溯源系统无法保证数据可靠性和完整性的问题,进一步加强对冷链食品的防护与监控。方法：基于区块链技术为湖南省市场监督管理局构建了湘冷链溯源系统,采用读写分离的存储方式,利用缓存系统提升了区块链系统读写状态数据的效率。结果：湘冷链溯源系统实现了湖南省进口冷链追溯环节的数据共享,并且针对发生疑似问题的冷链食品可以精准定位和快速上报。结论：湘冷链溯源系统基于区块链技术可信任性和可溯源性,为湖南省市场监督管理局提供了一种更为安全的冷链食品监管模式,通过追溯环节、追溯码、产品管理以及信息上链防篡改功能,实现了可信闭环冷链食品“物防”追溯体系,保障了食品安全。     

The role of smart packaging system in food supply chain

Food supply chain is a rapidly growing integrated sector and covers all the aspects from farm to fork, including manufacturing, packaging, distribution, storing, as well as further processing or cooking for consumption. Along this chain, smart packaging could impact the quality, safety, and sustainability of food. Packaging systems have evolved to be smarter with integration of emerging electronics and wireless communication and cloud data solutions. Although there are many factors causing the loss and waste issues for foods throughout the whole supply chain of food and there have been several articles showing the recent advances and breakthroughs in developing smart packaging systems, this review integrates these conceptual frameworks and technological applications and focuses on how innovative smart packaging solutions are beneficial to the overall quality and safety of food supply by enhancing product traceability and reducing the amount of food loss and waste. We start by introducing the concept of the management for the integrated food supply chain, which is critical in tactical and operational components that can enhance product traceability within the entire chain. Then we highlight the impact of smart packaging in reducing food loss and waste. We summarize the basic information of the common printing techniques for smart packaging system (sensor and indicator). Then, we discuss the potential challenges in the manufacturing and deployment of smart packaging systems, as well as their cost-related drawbacks and further steps in food supply chain.     

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.     

稳定同位素溯源技术在肉类产品中的应用研究进展

近年来,国际上发生了一系列重大的食品安全事件,使得消费者对食品安全的信任度下降,对食品来源的关注逐渐增加。为了保证食品安全,各国施行食品质量安全可追溯制。稳定同位素溯源技术过去已在食品生产的某些领域得到成功应用,近年来在肉制品中的研究增多。文中系统阐述了稳定同位素溯源技术的基本原理,在肉类产品中应用的国内外研究进展,并对此技术应用的前景及今后研究的方向作了初步介绍。