Food Traceability Article

Food Traceability: One Ingredient in a Safe and Efficient Food Supply

Interesting article providing the US slant on traceability. Easy to read too.

http://www.ers.usda....raceability.htm

Regards,
Simon

I have no doubt about the validity of a sound traceability system in benefiting the wider consumers provided it is backed by a solid product recovery protocol.

However, how far should we really go.....as they mentioned, whats the depth are you willing to go to. Traceability today comes almost hand-in-hand with technology and boy, they are damn expensive.

Is the current system of having barcodes, use-by date, batch nos. etc not sufficient enough to perform a proper trace back for an effective product recovery. Or, are we "blindly" supporting a seemingly unwanted technology Or is this a make-over of new products by the technology giants.

I remembered RFID was hardly mentioned no more than 2 years ago. Suddenly, the WarMart Group decided to enforce their suppliers to use RFID and that was it........practically the whole world is now engulfed by the euphoria!

My clients continue to be able to handle a solid product traceback and recovery exercise based on the recovery protocol that we have designed and implemented. Of course we do not have Mad Cow Disease to deal with but I thought these fellas have number tag on their ears for identify reason.

You don't need RFID and all the high tech system to record where your grains come from or could it be an issue of alibi

One thing for sure - cost of products are definitely going up. High tech suppliers of RFID technology is in for a huge windfall...................farmers continue to get subsidies from the Government although this may not last very in the light of WTO on disputes of unfair trade competition

Question - I go to this Cafe for a cup of brewed Coffee and I know Coffee Beans are often mixed in order to maintain a cap on cost and as a result of this cup of Coffee, I suffered a bad gastrointestinal attack from some "ugly bacteria". Can we trace to where these coffee beans come from. Does this mean that each time the staff mixes the blend, he has to record the batch no, where grown, etc and blah! blah! blah!......wow! thats a whole lot of work to do and thats becos you cannot have RFID in your coffee beans but the box where the RFID is affixed onto is gone?

Hand on, it is not so simple. RFID is reusable/reprogrammable and therefore may create more problems. Is this RFID stuff really worth the trouble? So, where's the beef!

Charles Chew