Traceability in the beef supply chain

Description

Traceability, or rapid access to knowledge of the history, treatment and location of cattle and beef products through supply chains, is of paramount importance to food safety investigations, corrective actions and product recalls. This chapter defines traceability as applied to beef before describing in detail methods of unique identification for cattle, such as radio-frequency identification and DNA profiling. The chapter explores the traceability of beef offered by barcoding and provides a case study of cattle and beef traceability through a supply chain from farm to retail using a distributed network, along with detailed suggestions for further reading on the subject.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Traceability defined 3 Methods of unique cattle identification 4 Beef identifi cation by barcoding 5 Traceability information systems 6 Case study: using the EPCglobal Network for cattle and beef traceability 7 Future trends 8 Conclusion 9 Where to look for further information 10 References