Corporate news
COOL Audit are Heating Up and ITN Can Help
PLEASANTON, CA. – June 17th, 2009
This month, the USDA began auditing retailers for country of origin labeling (COOL) compliance according to the amended Farm Bill Act of 2002. The legislation requires retailers to provide country of origin labeling (COOL) and adequate documentation for all covered commodities.
The good news for ITN customers is that ITN recently received approval from the USDA that our collaborative solutions support the necessary documentation capabilities to support COOL compliance.
Albertson’s LLC, an ITN customer for over seven years, recently conducted a test of their business processes and systems in preparation for a pending COOL audit.
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"We wanted to make sure we were ready for the USDA audits so we randomly pulled six weeks of information on cantaloupes. ITN is integrated with our legacy systems and between those two systems we had an auditable record with the appropriate COOL documentation in six minutes." - Dan Sutton, Director Produce Procurement of Albertson's LLC. |
While COOL mandates have been discussed for over 7 years, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) says many retailers are not ready. According to a survey of more than 2,000 retailers conducted by the AMS, 30% of retailers did not comply with the COOL mandate, 7% of retailers had "critical" labeling and documentation issues and 8% had "major" compliance issues. These issues will become critically important to retailers as they seek to limit the associated fines which can amount to $10,000 per labeling violation.
With more than 5,000 audits planned by the USDA this year alone, companies need to be prepared. ITN’s customers using the Collaborative Order Management solution have the tools they need to meet the challenge. To learn how you can prepare for the COOL audits click here.
About iTradeNetwork, Inc.:
iTradeNetwork, Inc. is the leading global provider of on-demand supply chain management and intelligence solutions to the retail, hospitality and foodservice industries. Built upon deep industry expertise, a rich data foundation and our industries’ most extensive trading partner network, ITN's collaborative solutions allow distributors, manufacturers, operators retailers, suppliers and wholesalers of all sizes to reduce cost, grow revenue and strengthen trading partner relationships. Today, ITN's growing customer list includes over 5,500 global companies. For more information, visit: www.itradenetwork.com
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