FDA’s contest winners offer affordable farm-to-fork traceability solutions

Out of 90 submitting teams the FDA has announced a dozen winners in its “Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge.” 

Including the United States, companies and groups from 14 countries entered the contest. The goal is to help achieve end-to-end traceability – from source to table – throughout the food safety system, according to the announcement from the Food and Drug Administration. 

The agency reports that the winning teams represent the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Submitting teams also hailed from Australia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.

The primary goal of the challenge has been to encourage stakeholders, including technology providers, public health advocates, entrepreneurs and innovators from all disciplines to develop traceability hardware, software, or data analytics platforms that are low-cost or no-cost to the end user.

“Tapping into new technologies and integrating data streams will help to advance the widespread, consistent implementation of traceability systems across the food industry,” according to the FDA’s winners’ announcement.

“However, the affordability of such technologies, particularly for smaller companies, can be a barrier to adopting tech-enabled traceability systems. To achieve end-to-end food traceability, accessible tracing solutions are needed.”

The FDA has scheduled a webinar on “Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT on Sept. 28. The 12 winning teams will present their solutions and take questions during a live question and answer session.

The winning teams in alphabetical order, with links to the videos they submitted, are:

• atma.io
  provides item-level traceability to each participant in the food supply chain, from source to store and from farm to fork, using Avery Dennison systems and proprietary blockchain technology using Mastercard Provenance.
• FarmTabs
  is free, downloadable software run on Microsoft Excel that helps small and mid-size farmers manage records for traceability and other farm-related metrics.
• Freshly
  is traceability and batch-tracking software designed for small businesses, including retailers, manufacturers, and distributors.
• HeavyConnect
  provides cloud-based digital traceability and compliance documentation solutions, including an intuitive mobile app that allows producers to capture traceability data in the field and seamlessly share it across the supply chain.
• Kezzler
  uses self-service portals to generate item-level identifiers and associate homogenized datasets at the grower level through simple mobile applications.
• Mojix
  uses industry standards to link traceability events for each individual item and/or lot throughout the food supply chain to enable a low-cost and collaborative open data network.
• OpsSmart
  provides an industry-proven, cloud-based traceability software solution to meet food safety, recall management, and traceability needs of a complex supply chain.
• Precise’s
  Traceability Suite delivers efficient end-to-end supply chain tracking to all segments of the food market by utilizing geospatial, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
• Roambee/GSM/Wiliot’s
  solution uses low-cost IoT sensor tags in combination with shipment visibility and verification technologies to provide end-to-end traceability from farm to plate.
• Rfider
  is software-as-a-service that simplifies capturing, securing, and sharing critical event data along supply chains all the way to consumers.
• TagOne
  uses a role-based data capture framework that updates an open source blockchain platform, leverages industry standards to ensure interoperability, and ensures ease of use and data security.
• Wholechain
  is a supply chain traceability system that utilizes blockchain technology, in collaboration with Mastercard, to trace products back to their original source.

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