GTP:Exchange and sharing

From TraceFood

Introduction

An important challenge related to improve and support electronic traceability is to make traceability information about specific traceability items electronically available for interested parties (other actors in the value chain).

There are several options that can be used to share information electronically. Each option will have strengths and weaknesses related to different non-functional qualities like security, privacy, tampering, availability, scalability etc.

To build up a complete traceability chain, it is important for all parties in the chain to register all ingoing and outgoing traceable items electronically to be able to achieve transparency of the consumption and production of traceable items through the business. This includes transformations and mixing of the traceable items. It is, however, not required by any laws to provide this kind of information for outside parties even though there exists systems to capture transformations.

It must thus be considered which purpose and use the traceability information has related to the business and to trading partners and the authorities.

TraceCore is developed as part of the Tracefood Framework to provide a way for exchanging traceability information electronically. TraceCore is thus one of several options of protocols for standardised information exchange.

Communication modes

Different modes of information sharing can be applied:

• Push core traceability data with Web (URL/URN) references to where quality information can be found to interested parties (actors), e.g., by using exchange formats like TraceCore, EDI, UBL, ebXML, etc.
• Push traceability data and quality information using an electronic exchange standard to interested parties (actors), e.g., TraceCore, EDI, UBL, ebXML, etc.
• Provide specific Web portal interfaces to share traceability information either in HTML or through Web services (HTTP, SOAP, XML).

Additional information besides core traceability information needs to be agreed upon by the chain members. Standardisation of vocabularies and the semantic interpretation of these is thus an important activity to undertake among the different stakeholders of traceability. Dictionaries and ontologies can represent standards for the basic electronic exchange, while exploitation and presentation of data should be connected to stakeholder needs and business processes.