The seafood industry has a lot to gain from scalable traceability systems, particularly in the form of reduced supply chain costs and risks. With threats of fraud and adulteration, in addition to at-risk seafood supplies, seafood industry leaders have decided to come together to outline infrastructure for a more resilient and traceable seafood supply chain.
The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) has released a new guideline to enable interoperability throughout the seafood supply chain. The initiative, named Standards and Guidelines for Interoperable Seafood Traceability Systems, v1.0 ("GDST 1.0"), offers a framework for addressing supply chain visibility, product validation and seafood sustainability via the development of guidelines needed to map one of food’s most sophisticated supply chains. Also referred to as “the Dialogue”, the body advancing seafood traceability will continue to evolve recommendations as the industry matures.
FoodLogiQ is excited to be part of the GDST 1.0 solution. The Dialogue brings together a broad spectrum of seafood industry stakeholders from across different parts of the supply chain, as well as relevant civil society experts from diverse regions. The Dialogue is organized around a structure and an agenda stemming from a dozen preparatory workshops in Asia, Europe, and North America. With three technical working groups, the pre-competitive Dialogue aims to produce an aligned global framework for seafood traceability based on four pillars:
- Internationally agreed-upon Key Data Elements (KDEs) to be routinely associated with seafood products
- Technical specifications for interoperable traceability systems, along with standard legal and business formats facilitating business-to-business information exchange
- Internationally agreed benchmarks for verifying data validity
- Harmonization of business-smart national regulations to help reduce compliance burdens.
These four pillars are similar to those that have helped create interoperable business-to-business traceability and information systems within other globalized industries, including banking, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. The standard also helps define key roles within the seafood industry and makes recommendations for capture technologies and methods, including GS1 standard barcoding like the GS1-128 barcode. By focusing on global interoperability and verifiability, the GDST will increase the value of seafood traceability systems and strengthen the seafood industry as a whole.
The guidelines drafted by the GDST are key to modernizing the industry and will contribute to bettering the management of ocean resources. With increased visibility, businesses can ensure the long-term social and environmental sustainability of the sector. FoodLogiQ is committed to developing supply chain management solutions that adhere to the GDST 1.0 traceability recommendations as an important part of our product suite. Learn more about how you can start implementing traceability for your seafood products by contacting our team today.
