Scoping Major New Markets for Food Traceability
Dec 19, 2005
We live in an ever-changing world of mass food production and, in the West at least, billion dollar retailers. Public concerns about food safety and worries about the apparent lack of transparency in the production and processing of food, mean that consumer demands have never been more stringent.
Major food scares, such as BSE and the recent threat of bioterrorism, have shaken consumer trust in the industry. If producers and retailers within the food industry want to survive in this increasingly competitive market, they must keep up with consumer and government demands by implementing transparent and reliable tracking and traceability systems. Failure to do so could spell disaster for any company left behind in the race to gain consumer trust. The food industry has realized that finished products are now only a small part of the picture. Quality assurance schemes, brand names and healthy diets are taking over. Consumers demand safe, affordable and high-quality foods.
Purely on financial grounds, the enormous cost of inadequate traceability cannot be allowed to continue. Examples of incidents where costs were greatly escalated by poor traceability include:
- In 1990, bottles of water from one company were found to be contaminated with benzene, a poisonous liquid shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. The company withdrew 70 million bottles from sale in the USA and Canada. However, the company's inability to trace the source of the problem or identify the cause quickly enough, lead to a huge loss in consumer confidence and trust. Consequently a further 90 million bottles were withdrawn globally at an estimated cost to the company of $263 million.
- In 2004 about 50 countries stopped importing US beef following the discovery of BSE leading to an estimated $4.4 billion loss in export revenues. Partly, this was because it proved impossible to trace all the other cows that ate the suspected feed.
- Threats are many. For instance, most infectious diseases are thought to originate from animals. Influenza killed 20 million people in 1918-19 and the World Health Organisation believes that avian flu could lead to over six million deaths from influenza if it is not traced and dealt with promptly.
Achieving unique identification: some solutions
There are a variety of methods available which allow identification and traceability of an animal or product but RFID will be the most widely used method with supplementary technologies such as DNA testing playing a vital part, particularly as they become fast, low-cost and deskilled. Solutions are shown in the table below.
Source:IDTechEx
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in the form of ear clips, implants and rumen boluses in the stomach are relatively expensive although, as the technology is adopted, prices will continue to drop. Their advantages include reliability, robustness, readability and, for some versions, condition monitoring. Cost over life can be unusually low because of the benefits and reliability. Implants are unpopular due to the risk of them entering into the food chain. Rumen boluses are tamper proof and reliable but require some skill to administer, especially in small ruminants. RFID ear tags are reliable in some situations and now possess extra capabilities useful for production management such as temperature sensing ability.
Biometric methods are currently expensive but show a great deal of promise. Retinal scanning is easy to use and very reliable when combined with GPS technology. Although initially expensive to set up, retinal scanning is extremely reliable. DNA methods have been developed by many companies e.g. Genetic Solutions and can be used along the entire food chain from farm to fork, unlike ear tags which are removed at slaughter. DNA technology, or nature's barcode, cannot be used alone since producers still require a real time or visual method of animal identification in order to manage their herds. However, DNA methods could offer a valuable means of auditing and verifying other traceability methods.
Massive RFID Opportunity
There are markets for both active (with battery) RFID tags on food assets, conveyances and vehicles and passive (no battery) RFID tags on produce, livestock and so on. Increasingly this is driven by the new legislation, particularly with livestock.
The following table gives the global RFID market specifically for food and livestock 2006-2010.
Source: IDTechEx
Food Traceability conference
A major conference Food Traceability in Dallas February 1-2, 2006 will give a uniquely global view of these practices and possibilities and the legal and mandatory push behind them. Many speakers at the conference will share how their technology is not only jumping the farm gate, as is demanded by new legislation and mandates, but is giving data that are more reliable and accessible.
An immediate challenge is managing vast amounts of data emanating from both the old technologies like manually entered records and conventional barcodes and the newer technologies. These newer technologies include temperature sensitive barcodes, 2D barcodes, RFID, DNA testing and advanced chemical and biological analysis with increasingly simple, dispersible equipment. Basically, these are ending up as "data hoses" and the largest computer companies in the world are among those wrestling with the challenge of timely presentation of useful analysis from these floods of information.
Jane Griffith, Director of Quality Assurance and Food Safety, at the major US supermarket chain WAWA will look at use of automatic storage and retrieval systems for traceability and other aspects. There will be a report on the Can-Trace project for food traceability across Canada. William Pape, CEO, AgInfoLink Global, USA, will talk on "Traceability Experience: Real-world Learnings"
Professor Charles Hurburgh of Iowa State University will share his experience coordinating the Iowa Grain Initiative and his analysis of the big picture in food traceability. Dr Ryo Imura, President, Hitachi Mu Solutions of Japan will discuss relevant work using RFID on food and animals in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. Professor James Rowe of the Australian Sheep Industries Cooperative Research Centre - a country that is a leader in legislating for RFID tagging of livestock - will report on RFID for both sheep and sheep meat. The Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil will report on advanced traceability of meat and livestock using new technology. Optibrand of the US will describe biometric identification of livestock, including retinal eye scans.
Combined technology is appearing, for instance RFID tags for both food and cattle monitor condition by recording such things as time-temperature profile. Syscan will discuss aspects of this.
DNA testing takes many forms with food and livestock nowadays. Whatman of the US, Biomerieux of France and others will tell us about it. The $6 billion Canadian food processor Maple Leaf Foods will also share such experience. The present and future legal situation across the world will be elaborated by the Food and Drug Administration of the US and the Food Standards Agency of the UK Government will explain the situation in Europe - vital to US importers and exporters.
For more information see www.trackingfood.com. Dallas, Feb 1-2, 2006.