| Course | GB570 Managing the Value Chain |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Traceability audit |
| Length | About 1,120 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB570 Unit 8
Four Claims on One Label: A Unit 8 Traceability Audit of a Single-Origin Olive Oil Back to the Grove
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB570: Managing the Value Chain
Unit 8 Traceability Audit
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The company, its suppliers, the records and every figure are composite and illustrative; the regulations, standards and studies cited are real.
Scope and Standard
The audit covers the four claims printed on Alder Quay's 500 ml single-origin bottle for the 2025 harvest, and three tiers behind Alder Quay's Chicago dock: the Lisbon exporter that stores, tests and ships the oil; the mills that produce it, including Lagar da Ribeira, in which Alder Quay holds a 55 percent stake; and the growers who supply the mills.
The rule for grading is strict. A claim counts as verified only when documentary evidence reaches the tier where the claimed condition actually occurs. Origin occurs in the grove, so an origin claim backed only by the exporter's paperwork is not verified. Extraction temperature occurs in the mill, so a cold extraction claim needs mill records. A claim supported by evidence at some but not all relevant lots is partly verified, and a claim supported only by a supplier's statement is asserted. Aung and Chang (2014) describe food traceability as the ability to follow a product and its attributes through every stage, and this rule applies that definition one attribute at a time.
The lots in scope are the 31 tank lots that went into the 2025-harvest bottles, about 610 tonnes of oil. About 60 percent came from Lagar da Ribeira and 40 percent from four other mills supplying the exporter.
Findings by Claim
Extra virgin: verified. The extra virgin grade depends on chemistry and on a sensory panel, both defined in the United States standards for olive oil grades (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2010) and in the European marketing rules (European Commission, 2022). Every one of the 31 lots carries a certificate from an accredited laboratory showing free acidity, peroxide value and ultraviolet absorbance within the limits, and a pass result from an olive oil tasting panel approved under International Olive Council rules. Alder Quay's own laboratory retested each lot on arrival in Chicago. The grade is verified at the time of bottling. It is not verified at the shelf, since oil can degrade with age, and Frankel et al. (2010) found that many imported oils sold as extra virgin failed the standard by the time they were bought. The audit notes this limit but treats it as a storage question, not a traceability gap.
Single origin Alentejo: partly verified. For the 60 percent of oil from Lagar da Ribeira, the evidence reaches the grove: the mill's delivery records link every load of olives to a cooperative member and a registered parcel, and all parcels are in the Alentejo. For the other 40 percent, the evidence stops at the mills, which supplied certificates stating that their oil was produced from Alentejo olives but provided no grower or parcel records. At the exporter, 28 of the 31 tank transfers carry complete cleaning and changeover records showing that the tank was emptied and cleaned before Alder Quay's lot was pumped in. Three transfers do not, so oil from those tanks could in principle have mixed with residue from earlier, non-Alentejo lots.
Harvested November 2025: partly verified. The label names a single month. The mill batch records show that 71 percent of the oil was crushed in November, 22 percent in December and 7 percent in late October. Blending lots from three months is normal practice, but the label's single month is not supported for nearly a third of the oil.
A harvest date that names one month on a bottle blended from three is accurate for most of the oil and wrong for the rest.
Cold extracted: asserted for 40 percent. Under the European marketing rules, cold extraction may be claimed only for oil obtained below 27 degrees Celsius during malaxation and separation (European Commission, 2022). Lagar da Ribeira keeps automated temperature logs for every batch, and all of its batches stayed below 27 degrees. The four other mills supplied signed declarations that their processing met the threshold, but no logs. For their oil, the claim rests on assertion.
The Exporter's Blending Accounts
One finding sits outside the four claims. The exporter also supplies Alder Quay's 1-liter and 3-liter products, which carry the general claim "Product of Portugal" rather than a single-origin claim. For those products, the exporter uses a volume-based accounting method: it tracks how much Portuguese oil enters its tanks and ensures that it never ships more under that claim than it received, but it allows oil from different mills to mix. That method can support a country-of-origin statement at the level of total volume, but it cannot support any lot-level origin or harvest-date claim. Alder Quay should make sure no single-origin language appears on those larger products, and the audit confirmed that their current labels do not use it.
Recommendations
Reword the harvest claim. Replace "Harvested November 2025" with "Harvest season 2025-2026" and print the earliest crush date of the blend on the back label. This is accurate for every lot and still tells the shopper the oil is fresh.
Bring the four other mills' evidence to the grove. Make parcel-level delivery records a condition of purchase from the next harvest, starting with the two mills that together supply about 30 percent of the oil.
Require temperature logs. Write automated malaxation temperature logging into the supply terms for every mill whose oil goes into a cold extraction bottle, or drop the claim for lots without logs.
Close the tank transfer gap. Add a contract clause requiring complete cleaning and changeover records for every tank used for Alder Quay's single-origin lots, with a right to audit.
Conclusion
Alder Quay can prove what its oil is, but not always where and when it was made or how. None of the gaps suggests that the claims are false. The four other mills are established Alentejo producers, the exporter's records are mostly complete, and the blend's harvest months are close together. The problem is that a grocer, a regulator or a journalist asking for proof would find statements where documents should be, and in a category where fraud cases have drawn public attention, a statement is weak protection for a brand whose price depends on trust. The gaps sit where the firm's own control ends, at the mills it does not own and in the exporter's tanks. Unit 9 will examine whether the chain can be redesigned, and the audit suggests that any redesign should be judged partly by how much of the label it allows Alder Quay to prove.
References
Aung, M. M., & Chang, Y. S. (2014). Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives. Food Control, 39, 172-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007
European Commission. (2022). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 of 29 July 2022 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards marketing standards for olive oil. Official Journal of the European Union, L 284, 1-22.
Frankel, E. N., Mailer, R. J., Shoemaker, C. F., Wang, S. C., & Flynn, J. D. (2010). Tests indicate that imported "extra virgin" olive oil often fails international and USDA standards. UC Davis Olive Center.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2010). United States standards for grades of olive oil and olive-pomace oil. Agricultural Marketing Service.
The Purdue Global GB570 Unit 8 instructions
Unit 8 of GB570 asks you to audit the claims a firm makes about its product against the evidence available at each tier of its chain. Define the scope: which claims, which tiers and which lots or shipments. State your grading standard before any finding, including what counts as verified, partly verified or asserted. Then work through each claim, identifying the tier where the claimed condition actually occurs and the evidence that reaches it. Note any accounting methods, such as volume-based mixing, that limit what a claim can mean. Recommend specific changes, whether to evidence, contracts or the wording of the claim itself. Most sections expect an audit matrix or equivalent summary and about six to seven pages, with regulations and studies cited in APA 7.
How this GB570 Unit 8 example is built
The audit opens with its scope, four claims across three tiers and 31 tank lots, and its grading rule, grounded in Aung and Chang's definition of traceability. Each claim then gets its own finding. Extra virgin rests on lot certificates and the USDA and European grade standards, with Frankel and colleagues used to note the shelf-life limit. Origin is traced to grower parcels for the owned mill's oil but stops at mill certificates for the rest, and three tank transfers lack cleaning records. The harvest month covers 71 percent of the blend, as the highlighted sentence notes. Cold extraction is checked against the European 27-degree threshold. A section on volume-based accounts for larger products precedes four recommendations and a conclusion.
Where the points sit in the GB570 Unit 8 rubric
Points in the GB570 traceability audit depend first on method. A defined scope and a grading standard stated before the findings let the instructor check every grade against one rule, and that consistency earns heavy weight. Each claim traced to the tier where its condition occurs shows the writer understands what evidence can and cannot prove. Use of real standards or regulations to define a claim, rather than everyday meanings, adds credit. Noting limits such as mixing methods or shelf degradation shows depth. Recommendations that change evidence, contracts or wording, each tied to a finding, demonstrate practical judgment. A concise summary matrix or equivalent, accurate citations of regulations and studies, and clear APA 7 formatting complete the rubric.
GB570 Unit 8 help: mistakes that cost points
The most common error in this GB570 audit is grading claims on the supplier's paperwork alone, when the condition occurs one or two tiers further back. Another is starting with findings and inventing the standard afterward, which makes grades look arbitrary. Some audits define a claim such as cold extraction or single origin in everyday words instead of the regulation that governs it. Writers often recommend dropping every weak claim, when rewording or adding evidence would be more useful. Volume-based accounting methods are frequently overlooked, though they change what an origin claim can mean. Fix the scope and the rule first, follow each claim to its tier, cite the standard that defines it and make each recommendation answer one finding. Our writers can draft a free custom audit for your product.
Get a GB570 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Which product and which claims does your audit cover? Name them alongside the Unit 8 prompt and your section's rubric, plus any supplier documents the case provides, such as certificates or lot records. The sample builds its evidence matrix around your chain, and your first custom sample carries no fee and arrives within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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- GB570 Unit 5: Supplier Dependence Review
- GB570 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- GB570 Unit 7: Integration Case Analysis
- GB570 Unit 9: Chain Redesign Proposal
- GB570 Unit 10: Value Chain Report
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GB570 Unit 8 questions, answered
What is the difference between segregated and mass-balance supply?
Segregated supply keeps certified or single-origin material physically separate from everything else through each stage. Mass balance lets it mix, while tracking volumes so the amount sold under a claim never exceeds the amount bought. Mass balance supports claims about purchasing, not about what is physically inside a given bar, and an audit should say which model applies.
Where does audit evidence come from without supplier visits?
From documents the case supplies or the firm publishes: certification reports, supplier codes of conduct, lot-tracing records, satellite forest data, and third-party investigations by journalists or advocacy groups. A student audit is a desk audit, and saying so openly is better than implying fieldwork. Grade each claim by what the documents can actually show.
Should the audit recommend dropping claims?
If the evidence cannot support a claim, recommending a rewording or removal is a legitimate finding. Graders usually respect an audit that says a claim outruns its proof and proposes accurate language. Pair that with what it would take to support the original claim, so the firm sees the cost of both options before it decides.
Where can I find a free GB570 Unit 8 sample paper?
This page carries a full GB570 Unit 8 traceability audit of four olive oil label claims, graded by a stated rule across an exporter, five mills and their growers, with findings and four recommendations.
What does cold extracted mean on an olive oil label?
Under the European Union's marketing rules, oil may be labeled cold extracted only if the paste stayed below 27 degrees Celsius during malaxation and separation. Proving it requires temperature records from the mill.