This unprecedented offer is an important leap toward broad-scale industry-wide traceability and creating the world’s safest, most transparent food supply chain.

iTradeNetwork, the leading global provider of supply chain management and intelligence solutions for the food and beverage industry, is thrilled to announce a pilot program with grower/shippers of select commodities in anticipation of the first-ever offer of its kind: iTrade's newly-enhanced iTracefresh traceability suite free of charge to 2,000 of the food and beverage industry's most prolific perishables suppliers. This unprecedented offer is an important leap toward broad-scale industry-wide traceability and creating the world's safest, most transparent food supply chain.

The perishables supply chain faces a serious problem: 48 million Americans get sick yearly from food-borne pathogens, and every year there are roughly 700 FDA managed recalls (CDC). As a result, the industry suffers an average economic loss of $10 million per recall, and only 33% of consumers now trust the safety of their food. Everyone agrees that industry-wide traceability is a priority, but it hasn't yet been propelled by a catalyst with the scope and reach to make it a practical reality. Enter iTrade.
"iTradeNetwork has been around for 20 years," says Dale Slaughenhaupt, CTO of iTradeNetwork, "Over the years, we've built the industry's largest network of retailers, distributors, grower/shippers, food manufacturers, operators, and logistics providers. This wide reach puts us in a very unique position to take meaningful strides toward industry-wide traceability. The offer will spark real change that will produce a ripple effect throughout the industry."

With the iTracefresh lightweight mobile application, growers and shippers will be able to trace their products from field to fork, automate and speed up product receiving, improve shelf life and product quality, simplify substitutions, and ultimately ensure food safety by giving participants complete transparency into every step of a product's journey.

This traceability data will be tied to other data on the iTrade Platform, including purchase order data within iTrade's Order Management System, freshness analytics from the iTradeFresh module, and logistics data from iTrade's soon-to-be-released logistics module. What's more, this data will also populate directly into the iTrade Blockchain, allowing buyers and suppliers real-time access to downstream activities in the supply chain as well as the opportunity to take perishables analytics to the next level.

During the first phase of the offer, iTrade will provide its traceability suite free-of-charge to suppliers on the iTrade Platform who grow commodities susceptible to food safety events. Each supplier on the pilot program will receive a free year of Label, iTrade's PTI solution, and Transit Mobile, iTrade's PTI-Palletized Advance Ship Notice solution, to capture and transmit critical traceability information early in a commodity's journey from the field to the end consumer. To remove any barriers to capturing traceability data as quickly as possible, each pilot customer will also receive a free hardware package of 2 mobile devices, a printer, and a field kit to get them started.

After the pilot program, the offer will be extended to 2,000 more suppliers, ranging from small, remote farms in South America to large farming operations in Yuma, AZ and Salinas, CA. With iTracefresh, grower/shippers of any size and technical capability can start capturing and sending traceability information with the mobile app within just 10 days.

Each supplier to sign onto iTradeNetwork's offer will also receive a publicity package that promotes their company as "certified safe" to buyers via press releases, case studies, website mentions, sales collateral, and more.

"We need to take steps to minimize the harmful effects of recalls for all parties - consumers, growers, retailers, and the industry as a whole," comments Rhonda Bassett-Spiers, CEO of iTradeNetwork, "By offering a year traceability solutions for free, iTrade will foster greater supply chain visibility, optimize product receiving, improve product shelf life and quality, enable more efficient recalls, boost brand loyalty, and ultimately usher in a supply chain we can all trust."

For more information about iTradeNetwork's traceability offerings, please visit https://info.itradenetwork.com/itrades-traceability-offering or contact safefood@itradenetwork.com.