Bryan Silbermann is the President of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA). As such, I suppose it might be easy for folks in medical devices and products to dismiss his statements about traceability. After all, what’s a cluster of grapes got to do with a box of stents, right? Well, if Bryan Silbermann knows anything, he knows consumers and he’s intimately familiar with consumer reaction to bad products, produce or otherwise. So I urge you to read the following statement he made when another PMA member signed up in favor of GS1-128 label traceability solutions, as noted in this release of December 4:

“Our food safety system is not complete without a more robust and quicker ability to rapidly recall our products and trace their history. The issue of how to have improved produce traceability is not about the technology; it’s about changing our business practices. Effective traceability must be a business imperative for everyone in our industry. Consumers and regulators expect it.”

Yes, he’s talking about food safety and produce, I agree. But what he is saying about consumers of food, I am 100% certain will be true for consumers of health care products and medications. If you agree, then it logically follows that corporations that get out in front of this will inevitability have at least a temporary strategic advantage in the marketplace.

Related posts:

  1. FDA Public Meetings on Produce Traceability Set for Oct. 16
  2. Produce Traceability via GS1 GTIN Standards Gaining Momentum
  3. The SMART 850PLIR Touchless Vacu-Jet Instant and/or Random Print/Apply Labeling System
  4. Europeans Propose New Labeling System for Toxic Emergencies
  5. GS1 Compliance, GS1 Labeling and GS1 Traceability Standards Forge Ahead