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USDA OKs firm's ID program
KANSAS CITY (OsterDowJones)--Sterling Solutions LLC, has received U.S. Department of Agriculture approval for its process-verified source identification and traceability program, the company said in a press release.
The program can provide verifiable tracking throughout the beef supply chain, from the time a calf is born until the final beef product is presented to the consumer, the release said.
The need for source verification in the U.S. beef industry moved from theory to reality when the country-of-origin labeling law was written into the 2001 farm legislation, the release said. Discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in a Canadian beef cow in May 2003, and last month's discovery of BSE in a U.S. dairy cow drove the point home.
But in order for a trace-back program to be embraced by the beef industry, it must take into consideration critical issues up and down the supply chain, Sterling said in its release. A program must be cost-effective while creating minimal disruption to operational activities.
The rancher must have a simple, dependable, yet credible service that creates a tracking system through the beef supply chain. The program must provide an audit trail that can be verified and certified.
The auction market operator faces a significant challenge in that many of the cattle going through auctions are in small lots from small, part-time operators with little incentive to embrace sophisticated cattle identification systems. So, while a system for source verification must not be burdensome to the auction market, it is just as important that it be acceptable to their customers.
The feedlot manager must be assured that cattle coming into the feedlot can be certified as to the source and that the system will be reliable and not create unwarranted liability.
The packer must be assured that the cattle he has just purchased and brought into the plant can be source verified and that the system provides information that can be tracked and maintained through the plant in a cost- effective, minimally disruptive manner.
That can be accomplished by maintaining a system where cattle are identified by production lot numbers that are correlated to unique premise identification numbers. Rather than track individual cuts through the plant, source verification can be accomplished with these production lot numbers, defined as a time frame that can be traced back through the system.
The retailer is closest to the consumer and therefore, must have a credible program in place that allows him/her to "buy into" the program and be able to address any questions that may arise concerning the source label. The individual cattle to lot number program can accomplish this, the press release said.
The production lot number that transfers with product to the end user will be easy to trace back through the packer to the feedlot to the ranch where the cattle originated, Sterling said.
Data storage for the Sterling system is a private entity and is accessible and controlled by the producer, the release said. In addition to the audit trail for source verification, it can contain information on things like breeding, calving, branding, vaccination, weaning and even pasture-rotation records.
Date: 1/29/04
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