Dive Brief:
- SpartanNash has partnered with ReposiTrak to launch a traceability program meant to “create a safer, more transparent supply chain,” the food distributor and retailer said in a Monday press release.
- Under the new program, hundreds of suppliers who harvest or handle products on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Food Traceability List are required to share traceability data with SpartanNash and its wholesale customers.
- “The Company and its suppliers are now part of the world's largest compliance and risk management network spanning more than 110,000 facility connections in more than 100 countries,” SpartanNash said.
Dive Insight:
With more than $9.6 billion in total annual sales, SpartanNash’s traceability initiative holds the promise of bringing transparency and safety to a sizable chunk of the food space and within the company’s supply chain.
"From a food safety perspective, there is tremendous value in knowing exactly where each product and ingredient has been before it reaches our shelves and consumers," Greg Molloy, SpartanNash VP of environmental health and safety, said in the release. "This technology enables us to collect and, more importantly, exchange this information for every affected shipment in a highly efficient manner.”
Along with ease of use and transparency, SpartanNash said it tapped ReposiTrak’s system for its “ability to enable faster and more precise recalls, as well as its insights that will help reduce food waste.”
The grocer sources from a large and relatively diverse range of suppliers, with no one vendor accounting for 5% of its purchases in its own brands, according to its 10-K. The company noted in the release that its global supply chain network serves independent and chain grocers, national retail brands, e-commerce platforms, and U.S. military commissaries and exchanges.
The company had 47 recalls covering 1.3 million units for the reporting period covered by SpartanNash’s latest ESG report, issued in October.
During fiscal 2022, the company’s food safety team updated its recall policy to make it more efficient for “escalating” issues to senior management, the company said in the report. SpartanNash also rolled out a third-party platform, Recalls 123, to streamline efforts as well as implemented 35 standard operating procedures around food handling and safety for its distribution centers and retail facilities.
As for ReposiTrak, the software services company bills its food traceability solution as low-cost, easy-to-implement and compliant with the FDA’s updated rule on company traceability recordkeeping that go into effect in 2026. The new requirements are aimed at reducing foodborne illnesses and deaths through “faster identification and rapid removal of potentially contaminated food from the market,” according to the agency.
In October, ReposiTrak said its traceability network included more than 400 connections between supplier and retail facilities, covering over 1,500 SKUs and making it the “the world’s largest food supply chain network of retailers, wholesalers and suppliers.” Since then it has announced a spate of additions to the network, including produce, citrus, grocery and seafood companies.
