Modeling of an agro-food traceability system: the case of the frozen vegetables

Abstract

In the last years traceability has become a critical part of the agro-food industry. The aim of the agro-food traceability is to allow the full monitoring of a product in the food chain and to trace the history of a good from the producer to the consumer. It is therefore a preventive instrument of quality and safety management. In this paper a new method for the traceability of frozen vegetables is proposed where the supply chain was initially modeled according to the BPMN standard. The first part of the paper identifies the internal points of data acquisition used along the supply chain and the information to record in each point. The data have been classified for internal and external traceability of a product and a general data model has been generated. The data model has been integrated with a flow chart model in order to generate the Web application model. Each actor stores the data of the product handled and collaborates with other operators of the chain by making available all information necessary for traceability. The front-end generated helps the user in navigating and, subsequently, in the data management. The data modeling and management approach is achieved through the creation of a web based system.