Though the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is a voluntary program, it is now required by the majority of top US retailers. At its most basic level, a PTI label is meant to standardize traceability systems in order to best track a product or case from its point of origin to its ultimate destination. However, each PTI label includes a breadth of information that may not seem obvious to the untrained eye, including:

  • GTIN, Use By Date & Lot
  • Commodity and Variety
  • Pack Style
  • Data & Lookup ID
  • PTI Pick Code
  • And a handful of other specifications...

The PTI label captures dozens of product attributes, giving buyers and suppliers critical visibility into their product’s journey. These benefits are further realized by the value provided by PTI-Palletized Advanced Ship Notices (ASNs). These PTI-Palletized ASNs append critical PTI traceability information to a notification that lets a buyer know that a product has left a grower’s cooling shed in real-time. The effect that this has on the freshness, quality, and safety of the produce is unparalleled, as buyers and suppliers can gain real time insights into the products being shipped at every stage of the supply chain. Here are some reasons why buyers are requiring PTI-Palletized ASNs.

Timeline Visibility

Knowing when a product ships can be an extremely valuable insight to the end purchaser, or retailer, in determining the end quality of produce. This real time visibility is not only helpful for inventory and stock keeping on the buyer side, but also for inventory notifications when the product reaches the pallet and cooler. When the product is finally in transit, this ASN can replace manual, hard to read tickets with valuable live information. This way buyers can get a quick notification that their products are in transit and focus on more pressing issues, rather than spend time deciphering tickets.

Reduce Loss Claims

With palletized ASN’s, suppliers can capture and transmit the contents of a shipment, so buyers can see what they can expect out of any given shipment. This can help minimize loss claims for each shipment as buyers can access more exact data on the products that had been shipped from each supplier.

Pack Date and Use by Date

Information about when the item is packed and when the produce should be consumed is standard on all PTI labels, which plays a huge role in forecasting and quality control in future orders. If a certain number of cases expired when they arrive, the buyer can then determine an appropriate quantity to order in the future. When cross referenced with the ASN, this PTI information helps give full supply chain visibility into the cut-to-cool-to-buyer process, so by the time a product reaches the shelf it is of the highest possible quality.

For more information about our Traceability and PTI Labels, check out our iTracefresh page here.