Food tracing and tracking system and method

Abstract

A food tracing and tracking system, method, and computer-program product are provided. The present invention allows companies that operate within these supply-chains, to exchange information bi-directionally throughout the entire supply-chain while maintaining data integrity and appropriate levels of security at all times and in real-time. The present invention enables a continuous linkage across the supply-chain-entities and changing of supply-chain entities in near real-time and ensures data integrity and data security, performs language translation, maintains a continuous history over time without the need for data conversion, and provides each entity within the supply chain the option of publishing their identity and data to the other supply chain entities. New fields can be added as needed for processes and materials. The present invention supports distributed data hosted on various machines by various organizations over a public or private data network.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM [0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 421,630 filed on Apr. 22, 2003 which claims priority from Provisional Application Ser. Nos. 60 / 375,202 and 60 / 375,192 both of which were filed Apr. 22, 2002 Each of the foregoing applications are hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002]This invention relates generally to supply chain tracing and tracking and, more specifically, to food tracing and tracking.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003]The food industry has a relatively low technology penetration and companies vary widely in their ability to provide information to their partners in any given supply-chain. This inability to provide information is compounded by the complex nature of the supply-chains themselves. The supply chains consist of a complex maze of sequence and parallelisms that can be arbitrarily mixed and changed with time as shown in the FIG. 1.[0004]Many companies (supply-stage legal entities) or a com...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a system that allows for real-time changes in the configuration of supply chain entities, ensuring data integrity and security. It also allows for the dynamic creation and customization of processes and the tracking of food process evolution. The invention features a new way of handling complex supply chain requirements, utilizing soft-coded value patterns. The technical effects include improved data security and flexibility for supply chain entities, as well as more efficient and robust food traceability applications.

Problems solved by technology

The food industry has a relatively low technology penetration and companies vary widely in their ability to provide information to their partners in any given supply-chain.

This inability to provide information is compounded by the complex nature of the supply-chains themselves.

Further, when companies are being asked to perform a trace of a product they fail to be able to provide answers to questions such as: what is in the container on the ship; how many pallets are inside the container; how many boxes are inside the pallets; how many cans are inside the box; what is inside the can; where did the content come from; how was it grown; what fertilizer was used; what pesticides were used; when was the seed sown; what type of seed was used; was the farm next to a power plant; did the farm have toilets; what manufacturing processes were used, etc.

Existing business enterprise software and logistics software vendors such as; SAP, Oracle, 12, People-Soft and Manugistics fail to be able to accommodate the fact that the food supply-chain will be in a constant state of flux.

In practice, this means that the supply-chain entities constantly change their suppliers, their supply-chain processes and stages.

This means that no application easily adaptable for defining a new process or changing on existing process at the same time.

In addition, the present systems fail to consider the time taken for a product to travel the supply chain (e.g., farm to table).

These types of software are usually very expensive and thus not all participants within the supply chain can afford them.

These types of software applications are also expensive and very few companies within the food industry supply-chain can afford them.

They do not solve the problems associated with food safety and traceability.

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