About food traceability

GS1 and 8Layer agreed to work together to ensure that food imports and exports, and domestically-traded food products have registered identities

GS1 Philippines has partnered with 8Layer Technologies Inc. to ramp up barcode registration of food and agricultural products in the Philippines and ensure the quality and safety of food products in the market.

In the executive agreement that was signed, GS1 and 8Layer agreed to work together to ensure that food imports and exports, and domestically-traded food products have registered identities. Creating such an environment and system ensures that industry standards are practiced, and inspires transparency across food supply chains (production to consumption).

The Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR) study in the United States highlighted the potential savings of 827 million US dollars when barcoding is integrated across food supply chains.

“Establishing a barcoding system opens up new possibilities in ensuring food safety as it identifies where in the supply chain a contamination took place, thus allowing a surgical approach in necessary recalls so as to protect consumers from any food-borne illnesses.”

“This private sector-led initiative aims to help implement necessary measures that will support the goals of Republic Act 10611 (Food Safety Act), which promotes food safety from farm to fork, promotes fair trade, and advances global competitiveness of Philippine foods and food products.”

For its part, 8Layer is committed to establishing the necessary IT mechanisms to expand and expedite the barcoding and registration process that would create the much-needed traceability system in Philippine agriculture. Its technical capacity in big data analytics, cybersecurity and open-source software development allows the company to implement this.

Food traceability ensures transparency for consumers, allowing them to know how their food was produced, how it was processed, and where it came from — think about knowing your food’s journey. Best practices allowing visibility of the supply chain redounds to consumer safety and protection.

“Once we can trace our food back to its source and everything in between, it will be easier for us to prevent and address issues that threaten food security and safety like that of livestock and poultry diseases (e.g. African Swine Fever, Avian flu outbreaks) or even food or beverage poisoning cases (e.g cyanide poisoning from consumption of cassava-based food products, methanol-spiked lambanog leading to mass poisoning or even death,” it said.

Food traceability ensures transparency for consumers, allowing them to know how their food was produced, how it was processed, and where it came from.

In the next months, GS1 and 8Layer will roll out their plan of action and seek to work with farmer groups, business associations, and government agencies. Stakeholders will be encouraged to implement best practices. For updates on the development of this initiative, you can follow GS1 Philippines and 8Layer Technologies on their websites and social media channels.

GS1 Philippines Inc. is one of the 115 member organizations in as many countries of the GS1 Global Office based in Brussels. The GS1 System, otherwise known as the family of globally accepted standards, provides an internationally integrated system of identifying, capturing information, sharing and using information about trade objects and healthcare products while 8Layer Technologies Inc., is an open-source IT solution company that has been in the software development and systems integration industry for 16 years.