Global Food Traceability Center seafood traceability financial tool

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC) has launched a seafood traceability financial tool. This tool assists organisations in the seafood industry to understand the financial impact (costs and benefits) of implementing traceability. Developed with input from seafood business leaders and owners, the tool is free and accessible online at www.seafoodtraceability.org.

The tool helps businesses identify the payback from traceability by asking basic questions about the organisation such as industry segment, revenue, current traceability level and their reasons for investing in traceability. The user is then walked through an assessment of how traceability may impact their business, including items such as: new market access and customer growth; lawsuits and liability insurance costs; recall management costs; information management; scrap/waste/shrink costs; quality management.

The tool calculates the net present value of investment over the user-selected time horizon and then displays a confidential results page with a forecast of return on investment at the selected level of traceability. This report can be saved and printed, and includes the breakdown of annual benefits.

The tool is suitable for any seafood business, particularly smaller firms that may not have the time or resources available to execute a detailed business case.