WASHINGTON DC — The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC) today announced the launch of a Seafood Traceability Financial Tool. This tool assists organizations in the seafood industry in understanding the financial impact (costs and benefits) of implementing traceability. Developed with input from seafood business leaders and owners, and as part of its service to the seafood industry, this tool is freely accessible online at https://www.seafoodtraceability.org
“From retailers and food service companies, all the way back to the catch, the entire food industry is becoming more concerned and conscious about traceability and how to help protect the public,” said Brian Sterling, Managing Director of the Global Food Traceability Center. “In addition to providing a way to verify the source of products, traceability also offers tangible financial benefits for companies. It’s a proven business tool that can drive new market opportunities, lower costs, and increase margins.”
The tool helps businesses identify the payback from traceability by asking basic questions about the organization such as industry segment, revenue, current traceability level, and their reasons for investing in traceability. The user is then walked through an assessment of how traceability may impact their business, including items such as:
• New market access and customer growth
• Lawsuits and liability insurance costs
• Recall management costs
• Information management
• Scrap/waste/shrink costs
• Quality management
The tool calculates the Net Present Value of investment over the user-selected time horizon and then displays a confidential results page with a forecast of return on investment at the selected level of traceability. This report can be saved and printed, and includes the breakdown of annual benefits selected on the previous pages.
The tool is intended for use by any seafood business, and will be especially helpful for smaller firms that may not have the time or resources available to execute a detailed business case. It is intuitively simple to use and can produce results in a matter of minutes; or the user can choose to conduct more detailed analysis.
In September 2013, IFT launched the GFTC, a science-based, not-for-profit public-private partnership. It brings together key stakeholders in the food system to collaborate on traceability solutions and serves as an authoritative source about food traceability. It assists companies and government agencies to better understand the nature of food traceability requirements, to improve responsiveness and reliability in the event of food-related emergencies, and to increase the value and commercial benefits of food traceability.
For more information on the Global Food Traceability Center, please visit http://www.ift.org/gftc.aspx
About IFT
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Food Technologists. Since its founding in 1939, IFT has been committed to advancing the science of food. Our non-profit scientific society—more than 18,000 members from more than 100 countries—brings together food scientists, technologists and related professionals from academia, government and industry. For more information, please visit ift.org.
About the Global Food Traceability Center
The GFTC is a public-private partnership program within IFT that was created for the express purpose of being the global resource and authoritative voice on food traceability. Its mission is to serve all parts of the food system (from farm to fork) by providing applied research, objective advice, and practical expertise about data collaboration and food product traceability for the purposes of business benefit and public good. For more information, please visit globalfoodtraceability.org.
Source: Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)
