PTI guards against guilt by association

10/08/2012 12:17:00 PM
Tom Burfield

GTINs come in handy when the Food and Drug Administration is trying to find the source of an outbreak of foodborne illness.

“Within seconds, you’ll be able to help them with their investigation,” Fleming said.

That’s quite a difference from the past, when it might take weeks to sort through thousands of paper purchase orders stored in a filing cabinet.

“In a commodity industry like produce, we’re guilty by association,” Fleming said. “The PTI not only minimizes the amount of product that you have to pull from the supply chain, it also clears you from being guilty by association.”

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Growers and shippers can create their own GTIN numbers? That is news to us and should be great news for small vendors loathe to pay GS1 fees. Producetraceability.org needs to change wording:
>>>>
What is a Company Prefix?
A: A Company Prefix is a number obtained from the GS1 organization that uniquely identifies your company from any other company around the world. Once you use the Company Prefix to create any subsequent number (such as a Global Trade Identification Number or GTIN – see Milestone #2), it uniquely links that number to your company.

Oh my goodness! The world is full of half information. Here are the facts. Every company will need their own GS1 Company Prefix. They need it one time and it's forever. If it was issued before 2002, there is no annual fee. Issued after 2002, it requires an annual fee as well.

After you have your prefix, you assign your own item numbers for all levels of packaging.

When it comes to the newly issued prefix, GS1 charges more for numbers which allow a larger number of item number and they factor in your annual sales as well. The price can get steeper. Alternatively, it the price is to high, there are old company prefixes available in the after market. These become available when a company goes out of business or sells off a product line.

I will also say that www.producetraceability.org has lots of good stuff (best practices) on it but the information is by no means complete. You really need to refer to the GS1 General Specification. V12 is the current version.

What an extraordinay traceback. You can buy other companies numbers, you can make up your own numbers?!? Where can I find a number of a product that's on the shelve for 3 years? The whole PTI doesn't work and that's why stories are created to make it look good. Say it as it is: It's a number to run the cash register of the companies that are mentioned in these articles and the supplier, usually the farmer has to pay for. It has nothing to do with traceback or foodsafety no matter how stories are get twisted around.