Global safety science company, UL, has partnered with traceability solutions provider, SafeTraces to launch a ground-breaking traceability solution for palm oil.
The solution combines SafeTraces state-of-the-art, DNA-based traceability solutions and UL’s scientific leadership and trusted supply chain verification capabilities. The solution offers businesses a transformative and efficient approach for palm oil traceability and purity assurance and helps to alleviate pressure to deliver on commitments to enhance sustainability practices.
Global efforts to prevent environmental and labor abuses commonly associated with palm oil production have failed to keep pace with consumer demands for sustainable sourcing. The most effective response to the problem is a consolidated effort from all stakeholders to produce and source sustainable palm oil across the entire supply chain.
UL and SafeTraces are working together to solve critical challenges and remove barriers to access markets by offering brands a uniquely robust and innovative solution to the problem. SafeTraces patented DNA-based traceability technology provides stakeholders across the palm oil supply chain with the source information they need to make sustainable choices. UL’s objective, science-based assessments then confirm the accuracy of that information. With the ability to accurately identify the source of palm oil, food companies, processors, and producers can significantly strengthen sustainable sourcing systems and simultaneously drive trust within the industry and with consumers.
Simin Zhou, managing director for UL’s Ventures, said SafeTraces has developed a game-changing first-mile traceability solution that links the physical food product to its digital ID.
“Through our integration with the SafeTraces solution, we can jointly accelerate and validate the supply chain’s efforts toward fully traceable, more sustainable sourcing practices,” Zhou said. “As a third-party audits and inspections provider with a worldwide presence, we will work together with SafeTraces to tackle the palm oil sourcing problem on the ground, delivering unprecedented control of and insight into a critically important food supply chain at the global level.”
SafeTraces Founder and CEO Anthony Zografos said palm oil is ubiquitous in the world’s most popular consumer food and household products, yet its supply chain has a well-documented track record of troubling environmental and labor practices that sadly continues today.
“The human, environmental and financial toll of this problem is enormous,” Zografos said. “The first-mile, from plantation to mill, is where the risk of deforestation and labor exploitation is greatest and where traceability is weakest. SafeTraces is thrilled to partner with a global leader like UL to securely trace palm oil back to individual plantations in a way that is operationally and financially attractive for our customers.”