In 2024, Walmart announced its traceability program, requiring additional traceability recordkeeping for ALL FOODS and furthering its commitment to “providing safe, affordable, and quality foods to [its] customers and members.”

Other industry giants – including Kroger – have also made the decision to require traceability for all foods, extending beyond the requirements of the FDA’s FSMA 204 food traceability law.. ReposiTrak can help you to take your traceability data to any of your retail, wholesale or restaurant customers to meet their unique requirements.

The goal of traceability, according to the FDA, is the “faster identification and rapid removal of potentially contaminated food from the market, resulting in fewer foodborne illnesses and/or death.” As a result, every food supplier, retailer, wholesaler and restaurant in the country is now part of the largest data collaboration project in the history.

If you’d like to talk to an expert at ReposiTrak about traceability for your company, please fill out the form below.

Traceability starts with the supplier

Traceability is the process of using data to permanently document a product’s path through the supply chain from its point of origin, through every stage of production and distribution, and ultimately to the place where it’s sold to the end consumer.

If your customer requires traceability, you – the supplier – are required to DO traceability now. Failing to comply (or simply under-complying) with the traceability requirements of your customers could jeopardize the relationships you’ve built with them. Additionally, you could be hurting your chances of building new relationships with other major retailers or wholesalers – like Target or Sysco – that you’d hoped to have in the future.

What are Walmart’s requirements for suppliers?

Walmart requires specific traceability data to be shared for every shipment. Some data is required at the pallet level, some at the case level, and some for both levels. The data elements required include, but are not limited to:

  • GTIN
  • Lot/Batch Number
  • The Traceability Lot Code (TLC) source or reference (GLN, FFRN, USDA Est Number)
  • Walmart Item Number
  • The date shipped
  • Ship-From and Ship-To location, GLN, Address, Phone
  • All available date codes: Production date, harvest or pack date, best before date, sell by date and expiration date

Walmart requires data to be transmitted through Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) via Application Programming Interface (API).

Fast, easy traceability data sharing with Walmart and other customers is possible.

Getting traceability-ready NOW through the ReposiTrak Traceability Network is fast, easy and inexpensive. Thousands of suppliers, retailers and wholesalers are already in the process of connecting to the ReposiTrak Traceability Network to share any and all traceability data and meet the unique requirements of their trading partners.

Are your customers asking for traceability?

Watch the video to learn more: