Page 24 - Packaging News magazine March-April 2022

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ACTIVE & INTELLIGENT PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2022
Data on demand for table grape
Australian table grapes are leading the way in food traceability – benefitting from a $650,000 project investment that will help to protect this valuable export by developing producer-to-consumer traceability.
TABLE grapes are Australia’s larg- est fresh horticulture export. Interestingly, valued at $800 mil- lion in total, with $623 million export product, 90 per cent of Australia’s table grape exports are generated by producers and export-
ers based in the Victoria region of the country alone.
Managing such a vast market across the entire Asia-Pacific region is not without its challenges. Positioning the distinct flavours and provenance of the Australian table grape with both importers, retailers, and most impor- tantly consumers, is paramount to simply selling more table grapes and demonstrating the higher quality of the produce.
To date, true visibility and full transparency throughout the supply chain has been an elusive target. But societal, economic and legislative pres- sures have put pressure on this area to mature, and new technology around digital identities stands to revolutionise supply chains and the industry itself.
It’s therefore understandable why the Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) has been taking steps to address this need for greater transparency. Working together with Australian-based Result Group and their traceability partner Evrythng, a Digimarc company, ATGA has embarked on a new traceability sys- tem, funded by Agriculture Victoria.
“Our goal has always been to deliver the traceability program with absolutely no change required to the current operations of any part of the industry. We have done just that and we are very proud,” says Michael Dossor, general manager, Result Group.
“Our expertise in traceability is one thing, but when that is coupled with our process automation knowledge, it enables us to deliver solutions from a single source, be accountable for the process, and then deliver it. We are very different in this space.”
The implementation of this new technology has enabled ATGA to mass
BELOW: The use of this technology stands to revolutionise the agriculture industry as a whole.
OPPOSITE: The Active Digital Identity embedded in the QR code labels ensures each one is unique and traceable – an important innovation in combatting all manner of food fraud.
serialise individual items, digitally printing unique identities onto each carton and also extend the process to Poly Bunch Bags and Clam Shells at a unit level. Coupled with enhanced computing power and cloud storage, this enables all of the information around the product’s life cycle to be accessed by simply scanning a code, delivering true end-to-end visibility for the first time, at not only consumer level, but also through all points of the supply chain – from farm to importer to retail distribution and store.
Technology provider and traceabil- ity leader Result Group applies unique serialised GS1 Digital Link-enabled QR code labels to export table grapes, allowing the automated collection of data from farm and supply chain. This can then be shared with consumers to authenticate the food’s precise origin and engage with the brand through an open platform smartphone scan. No special apps are necessary, and both business customers and end con- sumers can gather the data required without the need for any change to devices either smartphone or indus- trial scanner.
The Active Digital Identity embed- ded in the QR code labels ensures each one is unique and traceable – an important innovation in combatting all manner of food fraud. The labels
This traceability project validates the adoption of data standards for the table grapes industry, to protect the integrity of products and producers...”
– Simon Jones, EVRYTHNG