Label Technique Southeast Provides Solutions to Global Problems

Quickly Tracking & Tracing Product Contaminations and Counterfeiting with StrataTrace™.

Source of Article: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/8/prweb1212344.htm

Pensacola, FL (Vocus/PRWEB ) August 14, 2008 -- Recent recalls of products from tainted produce to toothpaste have sent shock waves through consumers across the country. Suddenly concerned that the nation’s food chain is not functioning to provide adequately for their safety, consumers are becoming more selective in product purchases. At the same time, some business owners have been forced to close their doors for good following long recall processes. The losses to the tomato industry alone are estimated at $100-450 million from the most recent Salmonella outbreak.

In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year some 5,000 people in the United States die due to food-borne illnesses, with most of those deaths coming from the consumption of tainted vegetables. It is also estimated that 10 percent of all pharmaceuticals sold are counterfeit. Many are harmful, containing toxic ingredients or are being produced by sub-standard processing. Many designer labels, from high-end Champagne to fashions, are counterfeited and applied to products that do not meet the standards of the genuine manufacturer.

StrataTrace™, a labeling technology created by Pensacola-based Label Technique Southeast (LTS), Inc. provides the answer to limiting much of the danger and lost revenues from such product recalls and brand piracy. Anyone along the supply chain can efficiently and quickly track and trace tainted products or identify counterfeits with this labeling technology, according to Joan Wallace, LTS owner and president.

“We at LTS saw a global need for a better, more efficient and cost-effective system for tracing food contamination worldwide,” she said. “From tainted crops to counterfeit pharmaceuticals, lives are lost each year, not to mention billions of dollars in revenue. StrataTrace™ is the most flexible and affordable food safety tool available to brand owners, giving them outstanding return on their investment.”

StrataTrace™, developed over more than two years and at a cost of over $1 million, combines multiple labeling technologies to create a unique multi-layered approach. This includes such areas as food safety, production authentication, time and temperature monitoring, and product traceability. It is perfect for growers, processors, distributors and consumers.

Introduced in 2007 at the “Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy Summit” in Washington, D.C, StrataTrace™ remains a unique tool that can benefit the producer of any product that might need to be traced or authenticated. From cantaloupes and pharmaceuticals to the makers of designer merchandise, anyone who produces a distinctive product and requires either protection from counterfeiting or traceability will benefit from the use of StrataTrace™. At the same time, it will bolster consumer confidence, especially at the dinner table.

“The flexibility and adaptability of StrataTrace™ is one of its strongest features,” said Wallace. “Our labels use a variety of methods from microtaggants and microtext to different forms of bar codes to create a labeling platform that is custom-designed for the job at hand. We at Label Technique Southeast also have the advantage of being a ‘flat-line’ company that can respond almost immediately with whatever modifications our customers desire.

While StrataTrace™ has multiple uses for multiple products, it is with the food chain where the earliest applications were seen. With StrataTrace™, producers have the ability to create a seamless supply line that can be tracked and traced very quickly, a key component when food-borne toxins enter the food-production and delivery chain. For example, Wallace points out that in 2006, when an outbreak of E. coli bacteria in spinach caused 250 people in 26 states to fall ill and resulted or contributed to several deaths, it took authorities 43 days to isolate the California field where the contaminated spinach, which had been sold under several labels, was grown.

Wallace points out that while StrataTrace™ is not designed to determine whether an item is contaminated, its technology would allow the source of a contaminated product to be identified quickly.

“With StrataTrace™ we can trace a tainted product almost immediately back to the field where it was grown, even to the row on which it was grown. Theoretically, we can even identify who picked it,” she said. “I call it `Meadow-to-Market Traceability’™ protection.”

For processors and food packers, another significant benefit of StrataTrace™ is, because of its specificity and quickness, limiting the scope of any recall and limiting the spread of food-borne outbreaks by identifying the problem quickly at the unit level.

LTS, Inc. is a privately held, female-owned and operated company located in Pensacola, Fla.

For more information about Label Technique Southeast, Inc. or StrataTrace™, go online to www.labeltechnique.com or www.anticounterfeitlabeling.com, or www.stratatrace.com or call (850) 478-8801.

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