Unit-Level Food Traceability via Optical Code Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge in food commodity supply chains is the difficulty in tracing the movement of products due to aggregation and intermixing at various stages, leading to loss of identifying information and inability to trace infected crops, resulting in food losses and degradation of nutrients during extended transit periods.
Innovation Solution
A computing system that uses a server device with processors to receive and process optical codes scanned by camera-equipped devices, tracing the supply chain path of food products through linked records in a database, enabling the output of supply chain-derived information on traceability, sustainability, and nutrition metrics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If optical codes are assigned to each unit of food product and traced through supply chain records, then traceability and information retention are improved, but device complexity and system infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the supply chain tracking into discrete unit-level segments by assigning individual optical codes to each food product unit. This segmentation allows information to be retained at the granular level while the central database manages the complexity, resolving the contradiction between detailed traceability and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
A centralized database serves as an intermediary between the optical codes on products and the traceability information needed by consumers and regulators. This intermediary manages the complex data relationships while keeping the product labels simple, resolving the contradiction between information retention and system complexity.
2Reliability
If unit-specific identifiers are tracked through multiple supply chain stages, then product traceability is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring increases due to aggregation and intermixing
Solution Approach 1:
Optical codes with unit-specific identifiers are assigned to each food product unit before they enter the supply chain. This preliminary action ensures that identification information is already in place before aggregation and intermixing occur, making it easier to maintain traceability reliability without increasing detection difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses optical codes as information copies that represent the physical food product units. These coded copies maintain the identification information through supply chain stages without requiring physical tracking of the actual products, reducing the difficulty of detection and measurement while maintaining traceability reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing system for achieving traceability in a food commodity supply chain is provided, including a server computing device configured to receive a message indicating an optical code associated with a unit of a food product has been scanned by a camera-equipped computing device at a location, in which the message includes a product unit-specific identifier encoded in the optical code. The server computing device is further configured to identify in a database, a merchant record including the product unit-specific identifier and a merchant identifier of a merchant at the location. The server computing device is further configured to trace a supply chain path of the unit of the food product through additional records in the database that are linked to the product unit-specific identifier, and output supply chain derived information on the unit of the food product based on the traced supply chain path.