How timely tech is bolstering food tracking and safety

Companies that specialize in food safety and traceability continue to come up with innovative ways for those who transport or store perishable food to do so in a way that is safe and highly transparent.

Boston-based Tive Inc., for example, now has 5G trackers that provide real-time shipment tracking technology that allows food shippers, logistics providers and receivers to actively monitor the location and condition of their food products, said Lauren Seigle, senior marketing programs manager.

And Procurant, a Watsonville, Calif.-based company that provides procurement-, food safety- and traceability-related software, might soon embark on a new endeavor to help supermarkets comply with the latest provision of the Food and Drug Administration’s 12-year-old Food Safety Modernization Act, said Kevin Brooks, Procurant’s chief revenue officer.

At Tive Inc., its Solo 5G trackers use the latest global cellular, Wi-Fi and GPS technology to provide real-time visibility into the location, temperature and condition of food and beverage shipments, Seigle said.

“This validated data is sent to the Tive cloud platform, which allows shippers and receivers to monitor their shipments and receive immediate alerts if any excursions occur.”

For those who simply need to monitor temperature, Tive Tag is “the most cost-effective, easiest-to-use temperature logger on the market,” she said.

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It’s a paper-thin, flexible label that is activated at the beginning of a shipment and read again at the destination with the tap of a smartphone.

“It’s an end-to-end view of the shipment’s temperature throughout its journey [that] is instantly uploaded to the cloud application,” Seigle said.

The FSMA provision Procurant is exploring is known as Rule 204. It took effect in January and sets a three-year timeline for companies, including supermarkets that handle items on the FDA’s Food Traceability List, to track and report within 24 hours key information about fresh produce on that list that comes into their stores.

“Supermarkets generally have a lot of good information about food that enters their distribution centers,” Brooks said. “But once that distribution center pushes things to the actual stores, you don’t generally have an inventory system that can quickly be searched or reported against in a store.”

Procurant believes it’s in a strong position to help retailers comply with the new tracking requirements, Brooks said.

The company already has a presence in supermarkets with its food safety mobile devices that can scan labels, perform other tasks and are tied to a common platform, he said. In addition, Procurant is in distribution centers with a produce inspection tool and tracks the entire purchase process from farms to receivers.

“The platform potential is there to do it,” Brooks said. “We think we have a lead on what the market is going to need to do.”