Advancements in Traceability of Meat and Poultry

Gary C. Smith, Colorado State University

Consumers want to understand the origins of their food and its journey from farm-to-fork.¹ “Blockchain” is a generic term for a connected, unalterable system of data that notarizes when, where, and between whom a transaction has occurred.² It locks-in shipment details (data points are captured, stored, transferred, and accounted for) at each point in the supply-chain path.³ It is a great tool to enable traceability – if the product proceeds through the supply-chain path in discrete “lots”. It works well for poultry because the integrators (e.g., Tyson, Pilgrim’s, Perdue, Cargill) own and control every facet of production/processing from hatching, to growing, to harvest.³

 It has worked well for Cargill with its Honeysuckle White Turkeys where consumers can text-message an on-package code to access a family-farmer’s location, view the farm story, and see photos of the farm.⁴ Walmart has successfully trialed it on pork.⁵ Tyson has announced that Open Prairie Natural Pork is exclusively produced at its facility in Waterloo, IA; saying that all hogs are traceable to the place of birth.⁶ That’s an easy thing to claim; Blockchain works if you’re vertically integrated – like poultry and pork – or if you are small in scale. Three small meat companies in Arkansas are using a Blockchain system named Provence® for beef shipments to China – with a QR code on packages to tell their story.⁷ Some Wyoming ranchers are using Blockchain in BeefChain®, using QR package codes to “track their cattle from pasture to the meat-case”.⁸

JBS-Australia is using a Blockchain “paddock-to-primals” traceability program for its King Island Beef Program.⁹ JBS-Brazil has launched a Blockchain platform for monitoring its beef supply-chain to assure socio-environmental (e.g., deforestation, slave-labor) compliance.¹⁰ Walmart has created its own Blockchain technology program to create an Angus beef supply-chain that will connect ranchers, feedyard operators, packers, case-ready fabricators, distribution center managers, and retailers.¹¹

Of the major beef-exporting countries, the USA is the only one without a robust traceability system.¹² A Farm Journal survey found that 49% of farmers and ranchers say that the end-consumer has no right to know how they manage their farm/ranch.¹³ A Drovers poll found that ranchers are split on whether or not the cattle industry needs a national traceability system with 48% responding “Yes”, and 52% responding “No”.¹⁴ A voluntary national cattle traceability system – US CattleTrace® – has been launched to enable management of an animal disease outbreak using ear-tags, tag readers, and a private database.¹⁵ That system, based on ear-tags, RFID, and GPS technology (which tracks cattle from birth to harvest) would improve supply-chain transparency, increase export-market access, improve food safety, and improve livestock management efficiency.¹² R-CALF USA (a group of rogue cattlemen) has sued USDA to prevent use of RFID eartags¹⁶, but both Tyson¹⁷ and Cargill¹⁸ have joined US CattleTrace®.

Blockchain technology is not capable of achieving complete supply-chain traceability (because the trail ends at the packing plant), if the intention is to follow individual animals and their own meat. For cattle and beef, there is so much sorting, commingling, mixing, blending, and transferring of ownership that it is impossible to keep track of the bits and pieces of an individual animal. Although food companies want to use Blockchain to link consumers with family farmers¹⁹, that technology has been slow to gain industry-wide acceptance.²⁰ The only way Blockchain technology will work in packing plants that harvest and process 500 to 5,000 animals per day, is if they do groups/lots (e.g., of Organic, Non-Hormone Treated Cattle, Grass-Fed Cattle) in which they don’t identify the pieces or grinds as being from an individual animal — it’s from a group of animals raised, harvested, and processed identically.²¹

So, to achieve traceability (i.e., an information trail that follows the products’ physical trail) farm-to-fork on individual animals, a system must go beyond Blockchain.  An ear-tag (i.e., an Electronic Identification Device which bears an Individual Animal Identification Number) must be put in each calf at the time of birth.²² Tag-readers must be located at farms, ranches, auction markets, feedyards, and packing plants to collect IAINs, GPS locations, dates and times.²² On entry to the packing plant, DNA is collected and sent to a laboratory.²² A packer’s customer, a supermarket’s shopper, or a restaurant’s patron can gain access to the DNA data, independently and without the company’s knowledge and ask for traceability data on a sirloin steak or a package of ground beef.²³

The DNA-testing protocol described above (IdentiGen®) was originally developed for Ireland’s national traceability program; it now has testing laboratories in Ireland, UK, USA, and Canada.²⁴ The IdentiGen® protocol is being used by Tyson to trace the origin of beef entering the Open Prairie Natural Angus Beef program,²⁴ and by Performance Food Group for its Braveheart brand of Black Angus beef.²⁵ The Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association has implemented DNA-testing to distinguish “real” vs. “fake” Kobe beef.²⁶ Individual farmers can have their animals tested for DNA and certified as “genuine Kobe”, and they can use their unique animal identification number in retail marketing.²⁶  New Zealand’s largest Grass-Fed beef, lamb, and venison producer – Silver Fern Farms – uses a Scientific Traceability® system for live animal traceability; Oritain® as its laboratory to test muscle samples for DNA; and Quick Response® codes on meat packages to provide transparency to its customers and consumers.²⁷

The competitiveness of food marketers has caused the meaning of the term “transparency” to morph into more than just “where it comes from” and “how it got here”. For example, Tyson’s definition of the term; the Open Prairie Natural Meat’s brand is dedicated to transparency – communicating with its partners.⁶ FPL Foods processes Open Prairie Natural Angus Beef for Walmart. Jim Rogers (FPL Foods) believes that more and more folks want to know more and more about how that steak ended up on their plate, and how their roast ended up in their retailer’s meat-case. FPL does that through a DNA test. Consumers who purchase an FPL product are welcomed to send a piece of steak/roast to us and we will run a DNA test to tell them when and where it was born, fed, and harvested.²⁸ Midas Marketing has identified “DNA Traceability” as one of the Top Four Technologies that will create a more interactive meat-case because 73% of consumers worldwide want it, and nearly all are willing to pay a premium for it.²⁹

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