Digital Product Passport — The Future of Product Data and Food Traceability

Traceability has always been an important part of the food industry. Companies need to know where raw materials came from, which batch was used in production, where the product was manufactured, how it was stored, where it was shipped, and where it ultimately reached the market.

Traditionally, this information has been managed through paper records, Excel spreadsheets, ERP systems, invoices, delivery documents, batch numbers, warehouse records, and various manual forms.

But modern supply chains have become significantly more complex.

A single food product can involve multiple suppliers, different raw materials, several production stages, warehouses, transportation providers, distributors, retailers, and finally the consumer.

As a result, the key question is no longer simply:

“Can we trace the product?”

The more important question is:

“How quickly, accurately, and reliably can we reconstruct the product’s complete history?”

This is where a new concept is becoming increasingly important:

Digital Product Passport (DPP).

The Digital Product Passport goes beyond simply putting product information online. It creates a digital identity for a product and connects that identity with relevant information that can be accessed by different stakeholders across the value chain.

This development is already becoming practical in the European regulatory environment. In July 2026, the European Commission launched the Digital Product Passport Registry and a test environment under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

1. What Is a Digital Product Passport?

A Digital Product Passport is a structured digital information environment connected to the identity of a physical product or an identified product group.

In simple terms:

Physical product + unique digital identity + connected data = the foundation of a Digital Product Passport.

Depending on the product and regulatory requirements, the digital record may contain information such as:

• product origin;
• manufacturer;
• production date and batch;
• materials or ingredients;
• quality and conformity information;
• relevant logistics or storage information;
• product lifecycle information;
• recycling or end-of-life information;
• certificates and supporting documentation.

However, one important distinction needs to be made:

A DPP is not simply a QR code.

A QR code, Data Matrix, RFID tag, or another data carrier can be the technology that connects a physical product to its digital information.

The DPP itself is the information ecosystem and digital identity connected to that product.

Authentic Vision, for example, describes digital product identity and Digital Product Passport capabilities in connection with product information, authenticity, origin, materials, and lifecycle data.

2. Why Can Traditional Traceability Become Insufficient?

Traditional traceability systems are not inherently wrong.

A well-designed paper-based, ERP-based, or spreadsheet-based system can still meet specific traceability requirements.

The challenge appears when the volume of data and complexity of the supply chain increase.

Consider a typical food supply chain:

Supplier → Receiving → Storage → Production → Processing → Packaging → Finished Goods Warehouse → Distribution → Retail → Consumer

When information is manually recorded at every stage, several risks can emerge.

Human error

Employees may enter an incorrect batch number, quantity, date, or product identification code.

Delayed information

Data may be entered into the system long after the physical movement of the product has already occurred.

Fragmented information

One piece of information may be stored in an ERP system, another in Excel, another on paper, and another in a warehouse management system.

Slow recall

If a contaminated raw material is identified, the company may need considerable time to determine which finished products were affected and where they were distributed.

Limited transparency

The consumer sees the finished product, but generally has no visibility into the chain of events that brought it from production to the retail shelf.

The goal of modern traceability is therefore no longer simply to keep records.

The goal is to create reliable, connected, usable data.

3. Why Is End-to-End Traceability Especially Important in Food?

In the food industry, traceability is directly connected to food safety.

If a microbiological hazard, allergen, chemical contamination, foreign material, or another food safety issue is identified, the company needs to answer critical questions quickly:

Which raw material was involved?

Which batch was affected?

Which products used that batch?

Which production line was involved?

Where was the finished product stored?

Where was it distributed?

Which customers or retailers received it?

Which products need to be blocked, withdrawn, or recalled?

This is where traceability connects directly with:

• HACCP;
• GMP and GHP;
• supplier control;
• corrective actions;
• recall management;
• verification;
• Food Safety Management Systems.

Traceability should not exist as a completely separate function.

It should be integrated into the overall food safety system.

For example:

HACCP identifies hazards → control measures reduce risk → traceability shows where and when events occurred → data enables investigation and determines the potential scope of a problem.

From this perspective, digital traceability is no longer simply an IT project.

It becomes part of the food safety infrastructure.

4. Altinteg — When Traceability Becomes a Complete Infrastructure

Altinteg represents another important direction in modern traceability.

Its Traceability as a Service approach combines RFID hardware, smart labeling, data-capture infrastructure, software connectivity, and operational support to connect physical products with data across different stages of the supply chain.

This is important because one of the biggest challenges in traceability is often not the absence of technology.

It is the lack of connection between technologies.

One system may collect warehouse data.

Another collects production information.

A third manages logistics.

A fourth contains product information.

If these systems are not connected, a company may have a huge amount of data but still lack a single, coherent product history.

An integrated traceability architecture aims to solve this problem by connecting the product’s digital identity with data carriers, detection infrastructure, software systems, and operational processes.

This is where RFID, serialization, smart labels, ERP/WMS integration, and Digital Product Passport concepts can become part of the same ecosystem.

Conclusion

The food industry is gradually moving from:

“We have records.”

to:

“We have connected, reliable, and usable data.”

The Digital Product Passport is an important part of this transformation.

RFID, QR codes, Data Matrix, serialization, and other technologies can create the connection between the physical product and its digital environment.

Traceability connects the product’s movements.

Data infrastructure creates its digital history.

HACCP and Food Safety Management Systems ensure that this information supports real food safety objectives.

And for businesses, the value goes beyond regulatory readiness.

It includes better visibility, faster decision-making, improved recall management, reduced losses, stronger operational control, and greater consumer transparency.

Solutions such as those offered by Authentic Vision demonstrate how unique digital product identities can connect physical products with authentication, product information, and Digital Product Passport capabilities.

The approach represented by Altinteg demonstrates how RFID, smart labeling, digital identity, data capture, and software integration can be brought together as part of an end-to-end traceability infrastructure.

The future of a product is no longer only what is printed on its label.

It is:

The product + its digital identity + its data + its complete history.

And for the food industry, this represents an important shift:

Traceability should no longer be just a record of the past. It should become a data infrastructure for making better decisions about the future.