Agriculture and Agri-Food Traceability

GS1 Canada is collaborating with OnTrace Agri-food Traceability (OnTrace) – a not-for-profit corporation created to build and implement a traceability framework for the agriculture and agri-food sectors in Ontario – to support Canada’s agriculture and agri-food community.

This collaboration will enable GS1 Canada and OnTrace to:

• facilitate capacity across the agriculture and agri-food community for traceability;
• enable targeted, effective product recall and withdrawal; 
• facilitate access to new markets; and
• ultimately secure the competitive position of the Canadian agriculture and agri-food community.

More Information

Ontario Agri-foods Premises Registry

In July 2008, OnTrace launched the Ontario Agri-foods Premises Registry (OAPR), a premises identification registry for agriculture and agri-food in Ontario. Each participant of the OAPR will be assigned a GS1 Global Location Number (GLN), which enables globally unique identification of premises and participants in the supply chain.

Learn more about GLNs [34 KB PDF]

GLNs are part of the GS1 System of standards and offer the following benefits:

• facilitate differentiation in the marketplace;
• identify and limit the scope of recalls to affected products or locations only; 
• enable compliance with trading partners’ conditions of trade; and 
• enable compliance with government targets for traceability.

Identification and Traceability in the Agriculture and Agri-Food Supply Chain

GS1 Canada supports Canada’s agriculture and agri-food community by enhancing Canada’s agriculture value chain through global standards.

Global standards are the foundation for clear, consistent and understandable exchanges between trading partners in an increasingly globalized trade community.  Standards create visibility of products in the supply chain as they move from producer, to processor, to retailer. Implementing standards enable:

• tracking and traceability;
• product differentiation; 
• accurate electronic exchange of product and location information between business partners; and
• overall cost efficiencies. 

The GS1 System of standards links Canadian companies with major trading partners, ensuring harmonized information exchanged across diverse industry sectors, trade systems, and geographical locations, and thereby enabling productivity, cost efficiencies, and safety and security within the supply chain.

Business Value of Standards-Based Traceability

Increasingly, businesses are realizing the value of standards-based supply chain traceability processes for:

• enhancing consumer confidence in their products;
• accessing broader market and trading partner opportunities
• differentiating their product from the competition; and
• meeting government requirements for trade.