Logicsoft
Traceability Solutions
Logicsoft offers ready-to-deploy as well as customized turnkey solutions for the Product Traceability business needs through a range of services including Business Consulting, Technology Consulting, Process Implementation, Applications Development and Support Services.
What is Traceability?
Codex Alimentarius Commission defines ‘Traceability’ as “the ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stage(s) of production, processing and distribution.Traceability should provide a verifiable documentation for an effective food control system and should aim at limiting the discontinuity of the information through the food supply chain. In practice the term traceability stands for a system of record keeping and documentation by operators that enables tracking of the movement of a product or ingredient through the food chain.
What is Food Produce Traceability?
Produce traceability is an important link in protecting public health since it allows health agencies to more quickly and accurately identify the source of contaminated fruit or vegetables believed to be the cause of an outbreak of food borne illness, remove them from the marketplace, and communicate to the supply chain. Since many fruits and vegetables are eaten raw, the produce industry‚ from farmer to retailer, works diligently to protect these foods from contamination. Despite their best efforts, foreign matter can occasionally contaminate produce in the field or orchard, in packing or processing, in transit or storage.
Why we need traceability in food?
- Traceability is becoming more and more important due to,
- Increasing global focus on food safety, especially on residue monitoring, product standardization, Traceability, etc., andRegular Crisis due to pesticide residue, aflatoxin, etc., in products supplied to customers
- Regular Crisis due to pesticide residue, aflatoxin, etc., in products supplied to customers
Another major reason why this is such a critical point is due to instances where an issue of contamination arises, and a recall is required. Where traceability has been closely adhered to, it is possible to identify, by precise date/time & exact location which goods must be recalled, and which are safe, potentially saving lots of money in the recall process.
Traceability within the food processing industry is also utilized to identify key high production & quality areas of a business, versus those of low return, and where points in the production process may be improved.
What are the challenges?
The challenge for traceability in India is largely due to the plethora of and varying nature of stakeholders in the supply chain, namely
- The large number of farmers & small holdings.
- State Government Agriculture / Horticulture Departments.
- Organized & un-organized processors & manufacturers.
- Manual to automated Pack houses.
- Merchant and Manufacturer Exporters.
- The phytosanitary department.
- World Class testing laboratories, and finally.
- The nodal agency for regulation and promotion from Central Government of India.
Why ManageTrace?
- The Logicsoft’s solution for traceability is an integrated monitoring system called ManageTrace, covering all stakeholders in the supply chain, with a centralized Web Portal-based Solution Architecture.
Logicsoft has designed and developed a Stack of components within this traceability framework called ManageTrace, which can be customized for any Food Product; through its methodological approach in customizing the existing ManageTrace stacks, the existing components can be very easily customized for any product, once the supply chain, the stake holders and the information flow are mapped by our team.
- It is a secure, completely web- based system, with back-end RDBMS server, along with customized forms for each stakeholder or activity within a stakeholder. It is a completely interactive system, with in-built checks and balances. Each succeeding activity is linked to one or more preceding activity either within the stakeholder level or at any other stakeholder.
Feature highlights:
The ManageTrace is an internet based traceability software system, custom hosted for each customer, either at his servers or at Logicsoft’s own servers, with the following salient features:
- These can be easily accessed – anywhere, anytime, 24 by 7, by all authorized stakeholders, supported by a dedicated call center, with turnaround time of 2 to 10 minutes. All they need to use is a commonly available web browser through their internet connection.
- The data structure has been localized by using standard database driven lists for offices of various government organizations and their area of control, districts, taluk, villages, pesticides residue limits, etc.,
- Zero paperwork and Zero mistakes.
- Completely credible and foolproof.
- No document can be issued without going through the software.
- It has virtually reduced duplication in data capture and enables instant reference of previous steps in the supply chain.
- The inbuilt checks and balances in the software ensure that the succeeding step can be carried out only if the preceding steps were successfully complied with.
- Finally and most importantly, the customer can trace details of the consignment right up to the plot/farm level.
The Road Travelled:
Logicsoft started building customized, web-based certification and traceability systems for Government of India organizations from 2006 onwards with Grapenet for Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
Grapenet integrates all stakeholders in the supply chain of fresh grapes exported from India to European Union, namely Farmers, Pack houses, Exporters, Government Certifying Agencies, National Referral Laboratory and the nodal agency APEDA. Grapenet has been a great success, with a consignment to farm traceability established for all exports of fresh grapes from India to European Union; It has helped to introduce and implement global standards in the areas of pesticide residue monitoring, grading, product and company identification. It has also resulted in better revenue realization for farmers and exporters. Grapenet has been duly recognized by Government of India with a National eGovernance Award & by UN/AFACT with eAsia Award.
Similar successes have been achieved in Organic Products (Tracenet, eAsia Award Winner in 2011), Peanut Products (Peanut.net), Buffalo Meat Products (Meat.net). Currently Hortinet is being implemented to cover all fresh fruit and vegetable exported from India.