Western Growers launches new food safety program

Aims to reduce the number of food contamination outbreaks

Western Growers (WG), an association representing family farmers who grow fresh produce and tree nuts in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, has  launched its new Supply Chain Risk Management Solution.

It is a unique and comprehensive program that aims to reduce the number of food contamination outbreaks, substantially improve food safety and keep consumers safe.

The Supply Chain Risk Management Solution utilizes new technology to advance food safety in several ways:

• Daily Assessment: While industry currently assesses compliance and successful implementation of practices through third party audits (a snapshot in time), this program’s unique software system allows companies daily and continuous input on their food safety performance.
• Track Trends: This system allows companies to easily review and track food safety data to identify trends that facilitate ongoing improvements in food safety practices throughout the supply chain.
• Traceability: The program provides instantaneous case and item level traceability across the entire supply chain using cloud and blockchain enabled technology.
• Financial Protection: The solution offers indemnification to supply chain participants in the case of a contamination event.

WG has partnered with iFoodDecisionSciences to deliver the unique software system which allows companies the ability to assess and track all food safety systems and processes in real time and provides actionable information on needed improvements.

Additionally, Trimble HarvestMark’s blockchain enabled technology provides a readily available traceback and traceforward capability that can quickly narrow and identify the specific products that are and are not involved in a food safety event. The insurance portion of the Supply Chain Risk Management Solution offers access to superior crisis management guidance from WG Insurance Services as well as legal counsel and claim adjudication.­­­