Reporting recently from San Antonia where GS1 is sponsoring the U Connect 2010 conference, Supermarket News noted the comments of Douglas Bailey, chief information officer, Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to the report, Mr. Bailey said that an organization called the mpXML group, which consists of meat and poultry suppliers and retailers who work on data standards for the meat and poultry supply chain, will be releasing a “Traceability for Meat and Poultry U.S. Implementation Guide” by mid-June. Describing the coming guideline, Supermarket News added this from Mr. Bailey:
“It covers the minimum requirements for managing traceability,” such as tracking the GTIN and batch lot number of cases as they move through the supply chain, he said.
That’s good news, but I was curious to understand why a federal agency would be previewing guidelines coming from what seems to be an industry group so I looked up mpXML. Turns out, the USDA is a member of mpXML. That fact would imply there’s some heft to this coming guide even though mpXML seems to be all about voluntary participation. Still, if you’re in that industry and are looking for someone to volunteer to help you master enterprise-wide product labeling in compliance with GS1, give us a call.
The Supermarket News report is available here. You can see more about mpXML here.
Filed under: GS1, Supply Chain, Track and Traceability Tagged: | GS1, supply chain, Traceability
