Supply chain News and trends

The FDA published its final rule about new traceability protocols for a variety of food products vulnerable to contamination. People who manufacture, process, pack or hold foods including produce, cheeses, eggs, nut butter, seafood and deli salads will be subjected to new recordkeeping requirements during production and along the supply chain.
The compliance date for the new requirements is Jan. 20, 2026. The law makes exemptions for small farms, stores and foodservice entities, as well as some foods that are treated to reduce contamination and produce that is rarely consumed raw. 
Traceability technology has long been touted as a way to identify contaminated food and ingredients quickly in the system. The FDA has said this kind of program can make the U.S. food system safer.

Via EcoVadis

Circulor Ltd announced Wednesday a partnership with Element 25 Limited (ASX:E25) to establish full manganese traceability and tracking of CO2 and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards for products produced from Element 25’s Butcherbird project in Australia.

E25’s partnership with Circulor is key to demonstrating traceability and ESG compliance for its manganese products as part of its strategic pathway to zero carbon manganese, the companies said in the statement. Real-time, digital visibility of ESG metrics, including CO2 intensity and energy mix used, will be made available to downstream market participants, including offtake partners.

Via EcoVadis

End-to-end traceability is coming to be viewed as central to advancing food safety, quality and sustainability. Transparency is also an increasingly important tool to build trust. We look at how this is impacting the supply chain.
Transparency is ever more important to consumers. According to FMI research, in partnership with Label Insight, in 2019 75% of consumers said they would switch to a brand that provides more in-depth product information - beyond what’s provided on the label. That’s up from 39% of consumers in 2016 who said the same.

“End-to-end traceability is now the key enabler of trust, transparency and sustainability,”​ noted Mike Jamieson, President of CPG at Schneider Electric.

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Food safety experts say that whole chain traceability may be the key to faster, more concentrated and less costly recalls, improved food safety and increased transparency in the food and beverage industry. But due to a variety of challenges, others wonder if whole chain traceability is feasible.

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In a successful proof of concept in Indonesia, Unilever applied GreenToken to sustainably source more than 188,000 tons of oil palm fruit. SAP and Unilever are using a pilot of the GreenToken by SAP solution to further increase traceability and transparency in Unilever’s global palm oil supply chain. The tool enabled Golden Agri-Resources and other suppliers from whom Unilever sources to create tokens that mirror the material flow of the palm oil throughout the supply chain and capture the unique attributes linked to the oil’s origin.

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Décor and retraced aim to aid fashion's biggest players to build transparent supply chains.

The partnership is building a chain-of-custody traceability tool that provides retailers and brands visibility and transparency into supply chain and material origin, including the ability to retrieve all relevant documents needed to prove fiber provenance. These parties will create an enterprise-scale platform solution that helps relevant supply chain stakeholders trace and collect the verified documentation needed for risk assessment, reporting, and compliance management.

Michael Cai, Director of Operations & Supply Chain of Décor, calls this the "next evolution in supply chain management."

"We see significant potential

Via EcoVadis

Over the past 10 years, the natural fibre market has seen a marked improvement in the demand for sustainably produced fibres. This is becoming more critical as legislation forces companies to report on the source of their raw materials and the conditions under which their product is produced.

Commercial business decisions are being heavily influenced by consumer sentiment conveyed through social media. It would be nice to think retailers make decisions in order to do the right and ethical thing, but businesses are changing their behaviour because negative behaviour can be easily identified and Tweeted, Insta'ed, WhatsApped.

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