Complete identification and traceability are the future for all food products traded globally.
Within a few years, no identification will mean no movement across international markets, said Frank Hennigar, president of the Food Systems Group of North America. The Nova Scotia company works on traceback technology.
“If you are a food manufacturer and you want to ship into the (European Union) or the U.S. or the Far East, you will have to have traceability,” he told the Animal Transportation Association meeting in Calgary May 2.
Read Also
Calf hormone implants can give environmental, financial wins
Hormone implants can lead to bigger calves — reducing greenhouse gas intensity, land use intensity and giving the beef farmer more profit, Manitoba-based model suggests.
Starting at the farm level, the premises and livestock must carry individual identification and enhancements like global positioning technology to further track where animals are at any given time.
A shipper must know where the product came from, what was done with it and where it is going.
Wal-Mart is leading the charge to implement a traceback system for all inventory in its food stores starting in September. Other companies are likely to follow its example.
Hennigar’s company is looking at ways to track animals in transit.
“We know the harsh reality of moving animals is that we will have problems,” he said.
His company is developing a sensor system called a pig ball. Slightly smaller than a soccer ball, it would be placed in a trailerload of pigs and could detect welfare problems such as overheating. The information is transferred via geo-referencing and satellites to the dispatchers and drivers so the problem can be fixed. It would also let shippers know where the truck is at any given time.
As traceability is adopted, it has different applications.
North America sees animal welfare and traceability as a market issue, whereas Europe regards it as necessary to protect public health, said Martin Appelt of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
While tracing cattle with potential BSE cases raised public awareness about scientific detective work, the need for complete traceability in livestock and poultry is not specific to any particular animal disease.
“There are many foreign animal diseases that have the potential to be disastrous to the livestock industry,” Appelt said.
In North America, disease tracebacks involve finding out where an animal had been and where its remains went. After slaughter it may be difficult to pinpoint exactly where the meat, hide and other byproducts ended up, so having accurate individual animal identity can speed up the process as well as save money if products have to be destroyed.
The CFIA will rely on the Canadian Livestock Identification Agency created in December 2004 for full traceback of farm animals.
The Calgary-based agency managed by Michael Dexter consists of industry representatives from seven livestock organizations as well as the Canadian Meat Council, veterinarians and government officials.
Its mission is to have an efficient national organization to minimize the impact of diseases so animals and their herds of origin can be found quickly.
Sheep, bison and cattle are already run out of the cattle identification agency from the same office.
The United States is not as far along with its national identification.
John Wiemers, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian and member of the national identification committee, said the first requirement is to identify all animal premises.
The second phase will be to issue an animal identification numbering system and the third phase is tracking of animals between premises.
