Eagle Eye Selects HarvestMark for Instant Produce Traceability
OMAHA, Neb.—Corporate Express Document & Print Management (CEDPM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corporate Express NV, announced that Utah-based Eagle Eye has selected HarvestMark (www.harvestmark.com), a unique solution powered by YottaMark, to provide instant traceability for Eagle Eye’s fresh produce offerings. Eagle Eye will use HarvestMark on products including tomatoes, peppers, melons and potatoes, according to its Produce Warehouse Manager Mike Jacobson.
HarvestMark allows anyone, anywhere, to instantly trace fresh produce via the Web or cell phone from the home or store back to the specific ranch, field and date on which it was picked. It provides unit-level, consumer-facing traceability for field-packed fresh produce and gives consumers confidence in, and information about, the safety of their food.
“We are pleased to have HarvestMark’s instant traceability,” Jacobson said. “We’ll be able to trace produce all the way back to the original box which in turn will trace it back all the way to the original field where it was grown.” Jacobson noted that traceability had been difficult in the past, and ease of use was a major factor in selecting HarvestMark.
Jacobson said that past attempts to trace produce really did not go down to the unit-level. The industry mainly ran a paper trail, with physical marks stamped on clamshells, physical stickers, or ink stamps to identify where the field produce was being sourced from. It was not very efficient, since you needed to have someone apply a sticker at each stage, he said.
“HarvestMark is the natural choice for growers and produce packing companies, like Eagle Eye, who want to offer unit-level traceability to consumers,” said Dennis Francis, vice president of label business development for Corporate Express Document & Print Management Inc. “In the event of a tainted food recall, instead of taking everything off the shelves, unit-level traceability takes off only what is necessary.”
Francis noted that HarvestMark is a cost-effective solution that provides accurate harvest information instantly without impacting picker productivity in the field, gives consumers precise data about their produce, and adds value by providing food quality and customer satisfaction data.
“Eagle Eye is providing a valuable resource for their customers by implementing traceability,” said Elliott Grant, president of YottaMark. “As an early adopter of our solution, Eagle Eye has demonstrated their commitment to food safety.”
News of the Eagle Eye implementation comes shortly after Corporate Express announced in June the availability of HarvestMark, powered by YottaMark, launching the consumer-accessible traceability nationwide to build and restore consumer confidence.
HarvestMark’s unique, secure and non-sequential codes are printed on labels using a variable data printing process, and appear next to the product’s traditional bar-code. Once printed, the clamshell manufacturer applies the HarvestMark labels the same way bar-code labels are applied today. The coded carton of clamshells is then labeled with a special master carton label, which is simply scanned in the field to associate the detailed harvest data with that particular group of clamshells. When consumers buy produce in the containers, they can go to www.harvestmark.com to get precise data about their purchase.
