Once I’m nicely packed up at my Initial Packing facility, my journey doesn't stop there. Depending on the scenario, I sometimes move through the supply chain without any further packaging changes all the way to your local grocery store. At other times I take different paths to your home like being processed as part of a delicious salad kit, a sandwich, or sometimes even getting repackaged into a different pack with a few new tomato friends. Transformation Event: Processing (S

As a tomato myself, I am not directly involved in the process of transaction data capture at the Farms, Coolers and Initial Packers. However, I do understand that as part of the FSMA 204 ruling there are a number of Key Data Elements (KDEs) that will need to be collected, stored and shared at the point of Harvesting, Cooling and Initial Packing. Produce farmers need to note (Sorry, I can only talk Produce 🙁) that the FDA has taken away data requirements early in the crop cyc

As we prepare for the new FDA FSMA 204 requirements on November 7th, many companies who handle foods included on the Food Traceability List (FTL) are wondering “Where should I start and what are my next steps?”. While the proposed requirements currently apply only to foods on the FTL, it's important for companies to understand that the sooner they start adopting best practices across their organization to enable end-to-end traceability, the better. This is mainly because of t