Custom fruit traceability app development
Appfront builds apps for soft fruit growers, fruit processors and traders who need to prove where their fruit comes from: every crate linked at harvest to plot, variety and picking date, each lot tracked through cold storage, grading and packing, and every delivery to a buyer with the lots it contains. So a question from a supermarket or a product recall is a search, not a day of digging.
What is a fruit provenance registration app?
A buyer wants to know where a box of apples came from: which company, which field, which variety, which picking date, and which sprays were applied. European food law requires every business in the chain to know who it received from and who it supplied to. A provenance registration app records that chain at the level that matters: the crate, the batch and the delivery.
Without such an app, provenance sits on a crate card that goes damp in the cold store, in a storage spreadsheet, and in the packhouse administration, which numbers the batches differently again. When a buyer asks which fields were in a delivery, or a residue is found, someone starts searching. The longer that takes, the wider the recall becomes, because you cannot show what falls outside it.
We build custom software because the registration has to match how your business actually works: how you pick and number crates, how you form lots in the cold store, which sorting machine you use and what it records, and what your buyers ask for on the label and in the delivery note. A cultivation registration knows the plots; the path from crate to box is rarely part of it.
Crate to plot
At picking, every crate receives a code with plot, variety, picking date and picking crew. That code follows the crate into the cold store and through sorting.
Lot through the chain
Crates grouped into lots per cold store, the lot followed through sorting and packing, and every box or pallet linked to the lots it contains.
Trace backwards and forwards
From a delivery back to plots and picking dates, or from a plot forward to all buyers. Defining the scope of a recall is a single search.
How we build your fruit traceability app
We start with the last question a buyer asked: how long it took to answer, and which link in the chain was hardest to reconstruct.
How you pick, number crates, form lots and store them, which sorting machine and administration you use, and what your buyers ask for.
Crate registration at picking, forming lots in the cold store, and importing plots and varieties from the cultivation registration.
Linking lots to grading and packing runs, the label and delivery note for each shipment, and traceability forwards and backwards.
Integrations with the grading machine, order administration and crop records, the file for audits and buyers, and ongoing maintenance.
What a fruit traceability app actually does
The components below come up at almost every fruit business. Which you need depends on whether you grow, sort, trade, or do all three.
Crate registration
A code per crate at picking, scanned in the orchard or on the yard, with plot, variety, picking date and picking crew.
Lots and cold stores
Crates grouped into lots per cold store, with the intake date, storage conditions and the outcome to sorting.
Sorting and packing runs
Which lots were sorted and packed in which run, taken over from the sorting machine, with the boxes and pallets that come out of it.
Label and delivery note
Per delivery, the label and delivery note with the details the buyer asks for, and the lots included in the delivery.
Traceability
Backwards from delivery to plot and picking date, and forwards from plot or lot to all buyers, with an export for the buyer or the inspector.
Audit file
Per lot, the origin, the cultivation data from the registration and the deliveries, ready for an audit or a buyer's question.
Who we build a fruit traceability app for
The app is intended for businesses where fruit passes through several hands and the origin is numbered differently at each step.
Fruit growers with their own storage
Picking, cold store and delivery on one site. Crate registration and lots per cold store are the core.
Sorting and packing stations
Fruit from many growers going through the same machine. Linking lots to runs and delivery per buyer matter most.
Grower associations
Members supplying a joint sales organisation. Origin per member and the file for buyers are what is needed.
Fruit traders and exporters
Purchasing many lots and delivering to retail and abroad. Tracing and labels per market are the core.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about tracking fruit through the supply chain. For crop registration and audit, see our page on GlobalG.A.P. crop records; for organic production, our page on Skal administration; and for the supply chain as a whole, our page on agri-food software. You can read how we work on getting software built.
If you pay growers based on sorting in the packing house, see our software for sorting registration in the packing house.
If you want each lot's inspection linked to its plot and picking day, see our software for soft fruit inspection reports.
Why choose Appfront for your fruit origin tracking app?
A question about origin always comes on a busy day. That is what we build for: the crate recorded at picking, the batch followed through, and the answer a search away.
An answer for your buyer's question
Which plots, which picking dates, which batches: the app finds it all from the delivery. Your buyer gets their answer the same day.
A narrower recall
If you know exactly which deliveries contain a batch, you also know which ones don't. Anything outside that batch doesn't need to be recalled.
One number throughout the chain
The crate code from picking can be found in the cold store, the sorting line and the delivery. Nobody has to translate numbers.
Security and privacy for a fruit origin tracking app
The app holds crop data, batches, deliveries and buyers. Access is set by role: the picking crew registers crates, storage manages batches, sales sees deliveries, and buyers see only their own traceability. Every change to a batch or delivery is logged with name and time.
The app runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. Scanning in the orchard works without signal too; the data is sent as soon as connectivity returns.
Frequently asked questions about a fruit origin tracking app
Questions fruit growers ask before they get started.
It gives every crate a code at picking, linked to plot, variety and picking date, follows the crates as a batch through cold storage, sorting and packing, and records which batches are in each delivery. That way you can trace a delivery back to the plot, and a plot forward to every buyer.
European food law requires every business in the chain to show who supplied a product and who it was supplied to. Buyers and certification schemes often ask for more: traceability down to plot and picking date. The app records both.
Yes. Crates are scanned on a phone or handheld scanner that also works offline, and the data is sent once there is a connection. A crate label can also be applied in the yard when the picking arrives.
If the sorting machine records which batch goes into which run and what comes out, the app takes that over. We look at which machine you have and what its software makes available in the first step.
As fast as you can search: from a batch or plot, the app shows every delivery and buyer, with an export you can share straight away. How precise the scope is depends on how consistently crates and batches have been registered.
No. Plots, varieties and crop protection data stay in your crop records; the app reads them and links them to crates and lots. That way the file for each lot also shows what happened on the plot.
Check that first. Many packing stations register batches from intake, and that is enough if you only supply. Custom work makes sense if you store and sort yourselves, if origin must go back to the individual crate, or if buyers ask for their own label and file.
Can you answer an origin question in minutes instead of a day?
Tell us how you pick and number crates, how you store and sort, and what your buyers ask for. We will show you what crate registration, batches and traceability look like.