Tracking food safety in a supply chain

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11645609-B2
Application number	US-202016741732-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2020
Priority date	Jan 13, 2020
Publication date	May 9, 2023
Grant date	May 9, 2023

Abstract

Embodiments generally relate to tracking food safety in a supply chain. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving a case identifier associated with a case of food, retrieving food information concerning the food items, analyzing the food information to determine an in-use portion of a distribution path, and associating the case identifier with user identifiers associated with candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the food items. The method further includes receiving an incident notification message including an indication of a problem with the food item associated with the case, and identifying the case identifier associated the food item associated with the food item identifier in the incident notification message, and retrieving the one or more user identifiers associated with the case identifier, and sending one or more problem notification messages to one or more client devices of one or more candidate users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tracking system comprising:
at least one processor and a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the tracking system to perform operations comprising:
receiving a case identifier over a computer network from a remote computing device for a case of food comprising a plurality of food items each associated with at least one of a plurality of food item identifiers;
retrieving food information associated with the case identifier from a database resident in the tracking system, the food information comprising information concerning the plurality of food items;
using the case identifier to determine an in-use start time and a location of an in-use portion of a distribution path for the case of food;
updating the database by adding one or more user identifiers to the database so that the one or more user identifiers are associated with the case identifier, wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items;
receiving an incident notification message from a client device at a subsequent time from a block chain over the computer network, wherein the incident notification message comprises a food item identifier and an indication of a problem with the food item associated with the food item identifier;
identifying the case identifier associated with the case of food comprising the food item associated with the food item identifier in the incident notification message;
retrieving, from the database, the one or more user identifiers associated with the case identifier;
determining which purchased food items from the case of food are in the in-use portion of the distribution path at the subsequent time and the one or more user identifiers associated with the purchased, in-use food items; and
sending one or more problem notification messages over the computer network using the block chain to one or more client devices of one or more candidate users associated with the determined one or more user identifiers.

2. The tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the in-use start time is based on one or more start time policies.

3. The tracking system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items in a restaurant and the start time policy is a restaurant start time policy, the operations further comprising:
receiving a timestamp and a geographical location from an application resident on a client device; and
determining that a user associated with the client device is a candidate user if the timestamp and geographic location indicate that the user was present at the restaurant during the in-use portion of the distribution path at the subsequent time as determined by the restaurant start time policy.

4. The tracking system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items in a grocery store and the start time policy is a grocery start time policy.

5. The tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the in-use portion has an in-use end time, and wherein the in-use end time is based on one or more end time policies.

6. The tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the tracking system further performs operations comprising determining user attributes based on one or more user-attribute policies.

7. The tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the tracking system further performs operations comprising determining food attributes based on one or more food-attribute policies.

8. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by at least one processor to cause a tracking system to perform operations comprising:
receiving a case identifier over a computer network from a remote computing device, wherein the case identifier is for a case of food comprising a plurality of food items each associated with at least one of a plurality of food item identifiers;
retrieving food information associated with the case identifier from a database resident in the tracking system, the food information comprising information concerning the plurality of food items;
using the case identifier to determine an in-use start time and a location of an in-use portion of a distribution path for the case of food;
updating the database by adding one or more user identifiers to the database so that the one or more user identifiers are associated with the case identifier, wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items;
receiving an incident notification message from a client device at a subsequent time from a block chain over the computer network, wherein the incident notification message comprises a food item identifier and an indication of a problem with the food item associated with the food item identifier;
identifying the case identifier associated with the case of food comprising the food item associated with the food item identifier in the incident notification message;
retrieving, from the database, the one or more user identifiers associated with the case identifier;
determining which purchased food items from the case of food are in the in-use portion of the distribution path at the subsequent time and the one or more user identifiers associated with the purchased, in-use food items; and
sending one or more problem notification messages over the computer network using the block chain to one or more client devices of one or more candidate users associated with the determined one or more user identifiers;
wherein the tracking system includes at least one processor and a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by the at least one processor to perform the operations.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the in-use start time is based on one or more start time policies.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items in a restaurant and the start time policy is a restaurant start time policy.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the one or more user identifiers are associated with one or more candidate users determined to have purchased one or more of the plurality of food items in a grocery store and the start time policy is a grocery start time policy.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the in-use portion has an in-use end time, and wherein the in-use end time is based on one or more end time policies.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the tracking system further performs operations comprising determining user attributes based on one or more user-attribute policies.

14. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the tracking system further performs operations comprising determining food attributes based on one or more food-attribute policies.

15. A computer-implemented method for tracking food safety by a tracking system, wherein the tracking system includes at least one processor and a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied t

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Wang Xinlin
• Tkac Vincent

Classifications

• G06Q30/018

  Certifying business or products · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833 Primary

  Tracking · CPC title

• G06Q50/12

  Hotels or restaurants · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G01N33/02

  Food · CPC title