By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Produce retailers, suppliers, technology companies and others gathered last week to learn about and promote the latest in produce traceability.

The event was the United Fresh Produce Assoc. annual convention, and though it was about a lot of things, produce traceability was a big part. An 8,000 square-foot demonstration area manned by staff from an international standards organization called GS1 was the center of attention.

The demonstration was sponsored by 13 different companies, primarily those that want to sell the latest produce traceability technology. “The big draw at the center is the demonstration because this is where they can get educated on GS1,” said Dan Vache, vice president of supply chain management for United Fresh.

Sherrie Terry, vice president of marketing for Fresh Solution Farms Network, thought the event was a success. Fresh Solution is a consortium of potato growers, packers and shippers in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Washington state.

“I thought they did a pretty good job of providing an overview of produce traceability at the seminar and the demonstration center,” Terry said.

Terry said this is happening in part because of government pressure on the produce industry to ensure more traceability of produce in case of disease outbreak. The different produce associations have testified nine times before Congress on this issue in recent years, she said.

She said it’s also an attempt on the part of industry to be proactive. It is concerned the government might put traceability requirements in place that will not be effective. The current initiative will work all the way to the case level, Vache explained, not the item level.

For example, in the case of an outbreak of salmonella where produce is suspected, investigators will still have to interview people who’ve gotten sick to try to figure out where they obtained the produce. Once they identify the retailer, the new traceability system will kick into gear.

“What we’re trying to do is get more precise so we don’t hurt a whole market,” Vache said. “We’re trying to get the funnel down as quickly as possible. By the end of 2012, we have complete traceability at the case level. It’s a big initiative.”

Vache said the new system will help the produce industry avoid the kind of disaster that struck the spinach producers in 2006 with the e. coli outbreak, and tomato producers more recently with salmonella.

Even though several years have passed, the consumer has still not regained confidence that spinach is safe to eat, Vache said. Spinach consumption is still down from where it was before the e. coli outbreak associated with it.

United Fresh has set up a webpage with different “milestones” the produce industry will follow to implement this new system, at www.producetraceability.org