Retinal scanning is not just the stuff of spy movies. It has made its way into the beef business, based on the need for traceability of meat.
Fast food companies demand traceability, specialty grocers sell it and governments either require it or soon will.
Now a Colorado company is using an animal’s own body to identify itself, a technique known as biometrics.
Optibrand Ltd. LLC of Ft. Collins began developing a cattle ID system seven years ago. A group of university researchers met to create a new way to trace livestock.
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“Biometrics had to be the way, they knew that much. DNA was too slow and cumbersome and was subject to fraud. Nose prints too difficult to get an unsmudged one reliably. But the retina was there forever and relatively easy to get to,” said Dan Baker of Optibrand.
“We even tried it on some of Dolly’s (the cloned sheep) sisters. They each had a unique retina,” he said.
In 2004, Optibrand delivered complete systems to Swift & Co. six years after the packer first approached it looking for a biometric ID way to trace cattle in its inventory.
A digital camera that records images at a rate of 19 every second is enclosed in a hand-held wand. A rugged computer terminal, small enough to hold in the other hand, records the data and decides which images are useful in identifying the critter in the chute.
As well as the retinal vascular pattern located on the back of every animal’s eye, the system is capable of recording or recognizing other visual identifiers such as tags, tattoos and brands.
While in the chute, compatible tools such as bar code and radio frequency readers can be used wirelessly through Bluetooth links or via USB ports to add identifications to an animal’s computer file.
Even when no tag or brand ID is available, the animal’s head and any other markings can be recorded so, if necessary, investigators could begin recreating an animal’s history.
At the same time that the system records the identifying tags and biometric data, it also adds to the file a location created by satellite based global positioning.
Once an animal’s ID is recorded, it is encrypted by the computer system into a tamper-proof format that will place a particular animal in a certain place at an exact time and date.
“Swift and other packers and marketers see the system as allowing a consumer to buy a piece of meat and then be able to use Google Earth or a similar system to trace that animal’s origin to the farm where it was born, the feedlot and the packing plant and then zoom in to look at the location for themselves,” he said.
In the United States, where 4-H calf shows have taken on a competitive life, 4-H clubs are using the system to ensure that show animals are the same ones claimed on entry forms.
Baker said the company sees the system being used by large packers and also by specialty producers who now rely on affidavits to certify their animals for specialized foreign markets such as the European Union or for natural or organic buyers.
“Beef breeds could also use it. Anywhere source-verified production is required,” he said.
The company also produces a post slaughter ID system that piggybacks on the data recorded before and at entry to the packing plant and links it to the carcass as it travels through the processing line.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently approved the Optibrand system for use in age verification of feeder cattle.
Feeders record the retinal pattern and an image of the animal’s lower incisors or lack of them. Provided no permanent incisors are present, the animal is ruled to be younger than 24 months of age.
This record, when combined with the GPS and time and date information, can be relied on by packers up to 180 days after it is recorded, even when premature dental development has taken place before slaughter.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service doesn’t require a slaughter dental exam for animals tracked using this data system.
Baker said the company is working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to get approval for this use north of the border.
Optibrand reader and software packages sell for $3,000 from the manufacturer and a fee of $1 per animal is also charged.
The data recorded by the system is exportable to other animal management software packages in comma delimited or CSV file formats.
