Press Release: - September 29, 2006

Consumers Need Instant Traceback as Well as the Food Industry

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Sarasota, FL, United States, 09/25/2006 - ScoringAg's traceback and label system reports all activities step by step in real time from field to the fork and provides traceback within seconds from the database.

E-coli outbreaks in spinach prove there is a gap in food traceback and raises the question about consumer's right to know where the food came from. ScoringAg's reports all activities step by step in real time from field to the fork and provides traceback within seconds from the web-based database.

To find contaminated food in seconds instead of days or weeks saves people lives and health woes. It also saves the produce industry complete inventory loss and millions in recalls and law suits. The solution is to prevent disasters, whether it is in the spinach or other industries, by using the ScoringAg recordkeeping database and traceback system.

Every purchaser of food at any stage of the food chain should demand a complete record and traceback by date and time as the FDA Bioterrorism law requires. Industry needs to make sure that firms follow recommended practices for growing, processing and shipping fresh produce, but there is no traceback to the field and its daily production regiments and practices on a minute by minute basis as done by the ScoringAg system of real time data entry.

FDA has repeatedly encouraged the industry to take more preventive action such as water and soil testing and beefed-up sanitation standards for field workers and packaging plants which the ScoringAg database has the recording entry forms for each field location (PIDC) of product from the field to the fork. Data can then be recovered within seconds from even the bag on the grocery shelf.

The SSI-EID traceback code created in the ScoringAg database with automatic date and time stamp can be printed on every package of product. With a barcode or RFID reader the entire record to date can be retrieved at any time, anywhere. The SSI-EID traceback code label can be entered also manually in the Search function in ScoringAg's database by the purchaser to see the source and movement of a product.

ScoringAg records enable retailers, restaurant chefs and consumers to decide what quality they purchase. As the records can't be falsified once data is entered into the database, there is a verification of all movement records. ScoringAg is the only system where the records move with the product through the code.
Governments around the world do have the responsibility to protect their people from food recalls, by implementing prevention tools into the food supply chain.

HACPP, and other food safety quality control systems, helps conventional and organic grown products with all kinds of certifications, mostly at the producer, prossessor level, but don't prevent recalls as recent events show. Certifications and brand labels do not provide a traceback from shelves to the field. Certification with ScoringAg audit trail regains consumer confidence.

ScoringAg is an audit system for safe handling of produce and in the case of an event like the now occurring spinach e-coli recall; it's needed by industry and also the consumer. Speed and accuracy is essential to save a person's life. The industry does not need more food safety laws, government regulations and inspectors, what is needed is a time stamp database throughout all the complete food supply chain of activities, including transportation as built and provided by ScoringAg. Having a traceback system in place provides traceback information within seconds by knowing the audit path of handlers whether from the initial production field or from commingling other fields to the final package that the consumer buys. Food growers and processors will now face the toughest questions and their biggest challenges is to renew loyalty in customers.

ScoringAg's traceback and trace up system for all agriculture products, featuring Site-Specific Recordkeeping and PIDC location codes, is one of the many divisions of ScoringSystem, Inc., located in Sarasota, Florida USA. The company specializes in providing solutions with mobile data, via wireless PDA's, laptops, and Semacode programmed Nokia, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson cell phones. With the use of RFID chips and barcodes for trace up and traceback of livestock and crops, produce, tracking transport containers or perishable meats and other consumer goods, ScoringAg makes managing data easier and does it in an extremely cost effective manner.
Agency / Source: scoringag.com