Head of the ITS TRACE team Prof. Nur Aini Rakhmawati SKom MSc Eng PhD (standing) while presenting the TRACE innovation at the 6th Indonesia International Halal Lifestyle Conference (INHALE) 2024

ITS Campus, ITS News — Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) continues to produce new innovations to support the halal ecosystem in Indonesia. Recently, ITS collaborated again with Bank Indonesia (BI) to launch a page called Telusur dan Pantau Halal Indonesia (TRACE), a halal monitoring system for raw materials from farms to consumers through QR Code scanning technology.

This innovation, which is part of halal research at ITS, focuses on monitoring raw materials that enable transparency in every food production chain. The head of the TRACE research team, Prof. Nur Aini Rakhmawati SKom MSc Eng PhD, said that this would give consumers more confidence in the products they buy. “We want to ensure the quality and halalness of food in every bite,” she said.

TRACE innovation prioritizes supervision of raw materials for meat or poultry from a food product. According to the lecturer who is often called Iin, meat and poultry have the highest risk in terms of halal compliance due to the complexity of the slaughtering and handling process. “In addition, we do not conduct full tracing to maintain the confidentiality of the business formula,” she said.

ITS students when scanning the QR Code on product packaging that has been integrated with the TRACE pageThrough a page that can be accessed at https://trace.halal.go.id/, Iin and her team provide complete information about meat raw materials in each production chain. Starting from the slaughterhouse, slaughterhouse (RPH), first, second business actors and so on until it becomes a food product on the market. “This information can appear directly by simply scanning the QR Code on the product packaging,” continued the Deputy Head of the ITS Halal Study Center.

In its operation, the Halal Traceability system applies a QR Code-Based Agreement, namely scanning the QR Code every time it passes through a production stage to review its halalness. Such as the process of moving meat from the RPH to the first business actor. This process must go through a QR Code scan to collect business production data to the TRACE page.

The interface view of the TRACE page, the work of the ITS research team which provides information about the halalness of the production process before it reaches the hands of consumers.

In order to expand the reach of products integrated on the page, Iin and her team collaborated with BI. This collaboration also involved two national institutions, namely the Halal Product Guarantee Agency (BPJPH) and the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture. In this case, products that have been halal certified by BPJPH will automatically be integrated with TRACE. Developed for a year, TRACE has also been launched at the 2024 Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) as the National Main Program of Sharia Economics, some time ago.

Not only that, Iin also had the opportunity to present this innovation at the 6th Indonesia International Halal Lifestyle Conference (INHALIFE) 2024, recently. “We received a lot of positive responses because this halal supervision model is still new in Indonesia,” added the professor of the ITS Information Systems Department.

Prof Nur Aini Rakhmawati SKom MSc Eng PhD (far right) presenting the TRACE innovation from ITS at the exhibition at the Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) 2024

Iin admitted that the innovation was successful thanks to the collaboration with her fellow lecturers. Among them are Dini Adni Navastara SKom MSc, Siska Arifiani SKom MKom, and Adhatus Solichah Ahmadiyah SKom MSc, all of whom are lecturers at the ITS Informatics Engineering Department. In addition, her team also consists of students from the ITS Informatics Engineering Department, namely Naily Khairiya, Amanda Salwa Salsabila, Muhammad Arif Faizin, Muhammad Choirun Niam, and Ulfah Lailatul Khoiriah.

Through TRACE, Iin and her team want to show that halal status is not only a matter of religion, but also food safety. With the transparency offered, consumer trust in a product will also increase. “Hopefully this innovation can expand its national scope so that it can be integrated with various food product business circles,” she said hopefully. (ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

Reporter: Putu Calista Arthanti Dewi