NGA taps ReposiTrak as traceability, compliance partner

The National Grocers Association (NGA) has reached a multiyear agreement for ReposiTrak to be NGA’s traceability and supplier compliance partner.

NGA said Thursday that it expects the partnership with Murray, Utah-based ReposiTrak to improve food safety, speed up recalls and reduce waste in the independent retail grocery and wholesale community.

The association anticipates the need for enhanced traceability and supplier compliance when the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Section 204 is published in November, noting that food industry stakeholders will need to maintain records of every movement of several fresh product categories from the point of origin to the point of sale to the consumer.

That will change how every food store and distribution center in the nation records the delivery of shipments, according to NGA. The Food and Drug Administration said Section 204 will cover 16 categories and thousands of products.

“Food safety is of paramount importance to independent grocers and their supplier partners,” Greg Ferrara, NGA president and CEO, said in a statement. “NGA’s partnership with ReposiTrak is the latest in a series of ongoing initiatives to enhance value for our members by sharing best practices in an area that’s crucial to safeguarding the hard-earned trust that retailers and manufacturers have with consumers.”

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As part of the partnership, Washington-based NGA plans to host online thought leadership content and share it across various platforms, including website, newsletters and email blasts, as well as a webinar series. ReposiTrak will participate in NGA events.

“NGA’s strategic partnership and support of the ReposiTrak Traceability Network is the first step toward industrywide adoption of our easy and inexpensive solution that will improve food safety, enable faster and more precise recalls, and even usher in the potential for food waste reduction and better transparency for consumers,” ReposiTrak Chairman and CEO Randy Fields stated. “Through our more than two decades of work in the grocery supply chain, we’ve come to understand that traceability will be inherently good for the industry.”

Fellow supermarket trade group FMI-The Food Industry Association partnered with ReposiTrak in 2013 to help make its solution available to member retailers. FMI said at that time that ReposiTrak, powered by Park City Group’s technology, enables grocery warehouses, supermarkets, packaged goods manufacturers, food processing facilities, growers, drugstores and drug manufacturers, and logistics partners to track products and components throughout the global food, drug and dietary supplement supply chains. Under the joint agreement, which included food safety and health consultancy Leavitt Partners, ReposiTrak was named the exclusive solution provider endorsed by FMI for food and drug safety traceability.

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