U.S – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to DeltaTrak, a pioneer in cold chain and supply chain management solutions, for a method of managing information for the supply chain of a perishable commodity.

This patent specifically relates to the November 2022 release of the FlashTrak Global Chain of Custody (CoC) information management system by DeltaTrak.

The FlashTrak CoC adds capabilities to DeltaTrak’s FlashTrak platform to give detailed supply chain traceability, assisting stakeholders in identifying all parties involved in an order, forecasting product quality, tracking shipment details, and confirming regulatory compliance.

Perishable items must safely make their way from the growing environment to customers in order to avoid spoilage, cut down on waste, and maintain product safety, says the company.

No one organization has complete information on the whole journey of a perishable commodity due to siloed, outdated systems.

In the past, a user in need of CoC information would expend a lot of time and effort signing into many, frequently duplicate programs to piece together information.

Before the development of FlashTrak CoC, according to Delta Trak, no platform merged commercial and quality data to highlight trends, inefficiencies, issues, or solutions in the supply chain for perishable commodities.

FlashTrak CoC is a cloud-based platform that was created to use data collected via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Application Programming Interface (API). It functions as a single repository ecosystem of information.

Built on the Dapicon ecosystem, which contains data contributions from buyers, sellers, marine traffic companies, real-time temperature tracker providers, third-party logistics companies, and governmental organizations, it aggregates contributions from consortium partners to provide cogent visibility into the supply chain and produces total transparency.

The system provides actionable data enabling users to identify all suppliers related to any order and the shipments associated with the order.

It ensures end-to-end product traceability using industry-standard GS1 standards– from the source to the store and every movement in between.

FlashTrak CoC also provides international shipment tracking using key identifiers like booking numbers, master bills of lading, purchase orders, invoices, etc.

Moreover, it ensures the management and maintenance of required regulatory compliance documents, and automated collection of international shipping documents and digital claims service.

“This kind of critical business information is traditionally found in separate, disparate systems making it difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to gather and analyze all the data required to make smart distribution decisions.

“Our patented CoC platform gives users access to key outputs needed to make smarter and faster decisions, helping reduce operational costs, protect the product quality and even perform precision recalls due to enhanced traceability of problem origin,” said Fred Wu, DeltaTrak founder, and CEO.

By continuously tracking the condition of the goods in transit, FlashTrak also addresses sustainability.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food loss and waste in the United States generate 170 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, excluding emissions from discarded food dumped in landfills.

Throughout the distribution process, about 12% of the food is wasted, primarily as a result of inadequate refrigeration.

“Temperature control during the movement of perishable goods is paramount to ensure shelf life and food safety.

“FlashTrak CoC is the only patented ecosystem platform that integrates both the IoT quality data of the product and the transactional commercial data to provide full supply chain traceability of where and what is the condition of your cargo in real-time,” said Wu.

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