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Introduction As an island state in the turmoil of the mid-twentieth Century,the United Kingdom (UK) drove for self-sufficiency in foodproduction. Increasingly intensive methods became the norm

in certain sectors, such as poultry and pigs. Subsequently, in the1960s, a backlash occurred against ‘factory farming’ and all thatthis system appeared to entail – poor attention to the welfare of the individual animal, excessive use of chemicals and damageto the environment. However, the consumer has become usedto the idea of cheap food, and has not generally expected to paya premium for animal produce reared in a more traditionalmanner.

This increasing public concern for animal welfare has meantthat, in recent years, the UK has taken action on farm animalwelfare in advance of European Union (EU) regulations. For

example, the use of sow-stalls and veal crates has been phasedout. As imported food animals may now be raised in conditionsbanned in the UK, this has left farmers in the UK at acommercial disadvantage.

Since the late 1980s, consumers have seen a major crisis in food

production and a series of food scares. Such problems have

affected many of the member states of the EU and countries

further afield, but bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

was first identified in cattle in the UK and remainspredominantly a problem in that country. Although the

evidence suggesting that BSE is a zoonosis did not appear until

1996, the unproven fears that this would be the case had

caused serious damage to consumer confidence in beef long

before this time. Many consumers were shocked to hear of the

‘unnatural’ livestock feeding practices which turned ruminants

into carnivores, enabling the epizootic of BSE to occur (26).

As was the experience elsewhere, Salmonella enteritidis was

considered to be widespread in the poultry industry of the UK

in the late 1980s, causing great concern for poultry farmers,

especially egg-producers. Listeria monocytogenes was found in

certain unpasteurised dairy products and chilled prepared

meals. Sheep were contaminated by radioactive caesium from

the Chernobyl incident. Lead contamination was found in

Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 2001, 20 (2), 584-597

Traceability in the food animal industry

and supermarket chains

SummarySince the 1950s, consumers in the United Kingdom (UK) have learned to expectcheap, but safe food. A number of incidents in the 1980s and 1990s caused publicalarm and loss of confidence in the role of producers and the Government in the

food supply. This review examines the impact of recent food scares in the UK,where scrutiny of the food industry has led to the introduction of new controls atall stages of production. Animal feed manufacture, livestock production, slaughterand the use or disposal of animal by-products are now controlled in waysunimagined prior to the identification of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)in the late 1980s. Traceability has become an important issue for consumers and,by proxy, for the multiple retailers that service consumer needs. Retailers haveincreasingly managed the food chain to ensure high standards that can be provenby audit. The retailers have also found that a commercial advantage can be gainedfrom certain aspects of source verification. In order to maximise sales in adepressed market, producer groups have themselves developed a multiplicity ofassurance schemes.

KeywordsAnimal products – Assurance – Food – Livestock – Supermarkets – Traceability.

R.G. Pettitt

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Room 204, 1A, Page Street, London, SW1P 4PQ, United Kingdom



batches of cattle feed. More recently, incidents of Escherichia coli(VTEC O157) food poisoning (some of which have been fatal)gave even greater cause for concern (24).

In addition, criminal tampering with foodstuffs has occurredduring this period, carried out by persons with a grudge againsta food company or simply for monetary gain throughblackmail. Such an incident can be devastating for amanufacturer or retailer, but an effective mechanism forproduct recall and removal from sale can moderate thecommercial damage and the risk to the customer.

The need for traceabilityThe White Paper on Food Safety (12) by the EuropeanCommission emphasised that such problems are aninternational issue and addressed many of the concerns notedabove. In particular this paper summarised, as follows:

‘ A successful food policy demands the traceability of feed andfood and their ingredients. Adequate procedures to facilitatesuch traceability must be introduced. These include theobligation for feed and food businesses to ensure that adequateprocedures are in place to withdraw feed and food from themarket where a risk to the health of the consumer is posed.Operators should also keep adequate records of suppliers of raw materials and ingredients so that the source of a problem

can be identified.’

Traceability of livestock and food serves a number of purposes,namely to protect the following:

– animal health: control of epizootic and enzootic livestockdiseases, e.g. classical swine fever (hog cholera), foot andmouth disease, Aujeszky ’s disease, Johne’s disease, scrapie

– public health: recall of food products from sale, enforcementof drug withdrawal periods

– both animal and public health: control of zoonotic diseases(tuberculosis, salmonellosis, BSE) and control of emergencies(contaminated land, contaminated animal feed)

– animal welfare: enforcement of standards

– the investment by the taxpayer: audit of livestock supportschemes.

Tracing the source of livestock has become more complicatedin recent years. The marketing of livestock and animal productshas developed with improvements in transport, especially roadtransport. Many livestock, notably cattle and sheep, are nowtraded many times before being ready for slaughter. Animalsmay be slaughtered hundreds of kilometres from the originalplace of rearing, and in Europe, international trade of live food

animals is particularly common.

Systems of food animal traceability have not always kept pacewith commercial developments, but have evolved as needs

were identified. As traceability entails increased costs, theperceived need for improvement has often followed a costlycrisis in the agriculture or food industry.

Identification systems for

livestockTraceability of livestock requires the unique identification of individual animals or groups of animals. For centuries,livestock have been identified in order to prove ownership or tomaintain breeding programmes. Systems of ear punch marks,horn brands and tattoos are still in use, although not oftenrecognised for official purposes. The ear tag is a more modern

solution, allowing official bodies to regulate the issue of numbers, although the ear tag suffers from the possibility of loss.

Member states of the EU have now standardised official cattleidentification in the form of uniquely-numbered pairs of tags(one in each ear) to guard against loss of identity. In addition tothe official numbering, farmers often use cross-referencedmanagement identification systems such as freeze brands,collars, colour marks or even the pet names of cows for day-to-day use.

Recording movements of

livestock A simple paper farm register of animal movements on and off the farm has proved invaluable for the control of epizooticdisease. Assuming that every record book covering a chain of movements is complete, accurate and retained for reference,animals can be traced back to the possible source of a disease.Stock can be forward-traced to identify premises at risk of thespread of disease. However, tracing through farm-based paper

records is laborious and time-consuming.

Where livestock subsidy is paid from EU funds, the farmregister must be effectively maintained to justify claims. Thisprovides a valuable incentive for the register to be kept up-to-date, over and above the legal requirement.

Modern developments in disease control and subsidy audit areleading to centralised regional or national movement registersheld as computer databases. In Europe, this is most developedfor cattle tracing, the main driving-force being the need forsource-verification of beef following the BSE crisis of 1996. For

example, in the UK, two systems are in use, in Great Britain(England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland,respectively. Great Britain has a centralised database of cattle,each individual being recorded on the system and issued with

Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 20 (2) 585



an identity document (a ‘passport’ in younger cattle) whichaccompanies the animal throughout life. This document issurrendered at slaughter, providing the meat inspection service

with the necessary information to label meat according tosource. A separate tracing system is in operation in NorthernIreland, as described in the paper by McGrann and Wiseman inthis issue (21).

The cattle tracing system in Great Britain

When a new-born calf is ear-tagged, the birth is registered onthe central database and entered in the farm register. The

database issues a paper passport which accompanies the calf throughout life. At each movement to a new farm, the off- andon-movements are recorded in the farm register, on thedatabase and on the passport. At the slaughterhouse, the

movement history on the passport can be used in thepreparation of labels for the meat. The meat hygiene service(MHS) returns the passport to the central database to record thedeath of the animal (Fig. 1).

The integrity of the tracing system is controlled by the physicalinspection of a proportion of animals and documents.

Sanctions such as movement restriction, loss of value or loss of premium may be applied where non-compliance is detected(Fig. 2).

The triplicate movement records on the passport, database and

farm register are a necessary safeguard while the databases arebeing trialled, although the extra work is unpopular withfarmers. Future development of live access to the computerisedcattle database systems should allow the industry to dispensewith paper documents, the necessary information beingextracted directly from the database when needed.

For national trade, the current EU system of marking for sheepand goats identifies the premises of birth, but does notnecessarily allot each animal an individual number.

Consultation of the farm register and the documents whichaccompany batches of sheep or goats still satisfies most of therequirements for tracing. However, accurate identification of intermediate holdings (where a particular sheep or goat hasbeen kept between the holding of birth and the slaughterhouse)can prove difficult with such a system. For example, tracingthrough paper records might reveal a number of possibleholdings which would each need to be investigated in thecourse of tracing the source of disease.

Pigs in the EU are also required to be identified to the holdingof birth. However, because much of the pig (and poultry)industry in the UK is vertically integrated, intermediateholdings are limited in number.

Recent developments in

identification and traceability of

livestockIncreasingly, new technology is entering the field of animalidentification. For example, many countries incorporate a bar

code on the ear tag for ease of use and to avoid transcriptionerror.

Radio-frequency identification devices (RFIDs) may be

attached to ear tags, implanted subcutaneously or be

incorporated in a bolus placed in the reticulum of ruminants.

586 Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 20 (2)

Centralcattle

database

Farm register

1Slaughterhouse

records

Birth

registration

Passport

Passport

Farm register

2Farm register

3

OFF

OFFOFF

ONON

ON

OFF

OFFON

Passport

Farm register

1Slaughterhouse

records

Birth

registration

Passport

Passport

Farm register

2

Birth andtagging of calf

Batchnumber

Farm register

3

OFF

ON OFFOFFON

ON

Passport

Passport

OFFOFF

OFF

ON ON

ON

Passport

Fig. 1The cattle tracing system in Great Britain



One major constraint on the uptake of this technology in

Europe is the absence of widely accepted international

standards for the use of these devices. An approved European

standard will hopefully follow publication of the results of the

current trial (Identification électronique des animaux [IDEA])

being conducted by the European Commission (27).

Scottish Borders Traceability and AssuranceGroup

The Scottish Borders Traceability and Assurance Group (TAG)

is an industry initiative comprising a full traceability system for

cattle based on electronic identification (EID) using RFID ear

tags and readers to comply with the standards of the

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 11784

and 11785. Electronic data transfer (EDT) is used to transmit

data to farm databases, a scheme database and the national

cattle tracing system (Fig. 3) (8).

If the look-up table is made available to third parties, such as a

market or slaughterhouse, the RFID device may be read

automatically into the business management system. This

integration of RFID tags with slaughterhouse management is

well developed in some other countries, such as Australia (18).

For greater security of identification, more sophisticated

security technology, such as DNA profiling or retinal imaging,

may be applied to food animals in the future, although the cost

is currently prohibitive. The collection of samples stored forlater DNA profiling (if required) has seen limited use in the

meat industry as a method to limit the cost of product recall.

Trade benefits of traceability –

government initiatives

Legislative controls requiring the traceability of livestock have

enabled producers to benefit from schemes that allow wider

trade. Following the implementation of further BSE-related

controls in 1996, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and

Food (MAFF) subsequently introduced two schemes in the UK

in which traceability is an essential feature.


Fig. 2The cattle passportNote the bar codes for avoidance of transcription errors



The MAFF BSE database is consulted to check the history of

each animal, to establish that no BSE has been confirmed on the

farm of origin. Any death on the farm must be reported and

investigated by histopathology for lesions of spongiform

encephalopathy at a MAFF laboratory. If BSE were to be

suspected (which has not happened to date), membership

would be suspended immediately until a negative

histopathology result was received.

When each animal over thirty months of age is sent for

slaughter, the animal must be accompanied by an official

certificate which confirms the BAS status of the animal. The

scheme has attracted only a limited membership.

The date-based export scheme

The date-based export scheme (DBES) is the second MAFF

scheme designed to implement the terms agreed in the EU

(Commission Decision 98/692/EC) (11) and the Office

International des Epizooties (OIE) recommendations for the

resumption of international trade in beef from the UK. The

scheme allows the export from the UK of deboned beef and


The Beef Assurance Scheme

Following scientific advice to restrict the consumption of additional parts of older cattle, a decision was taken in 1996 to

allow the sale for human consumption of beef from GreatBritain only if the meat was produced from cattle under the ageof thirty months at slaughter. As an exception to this rule, the

Beef Assurance Scheme (BAS) was designed to allow the sale of beef from grass-fed, slow-maturing traditional breeds of beef cattle which may not be finished at thirty months. Membershipof BAS allows the deadline to be relaxed, slaughter for human

consumption being acceptable up to forty-two months of age.The rules of membership are onerous, as follows:

– the producer is required to double-tag all cattle (this was

introduced in advance of the general legal requirement in 1998)

– documentary proof must be provided that meat-and-bonemeal has not been fed during the last seven years

– the farm must not have experienced BSE

– the herd must be an all-beef herd and must have contained

no dairy cattle in the previous seven years

– purchased cattle must be sourced from farms of similar

status.

EID : electronic identification

RFID : radio-frequency identification device

Fig. 3The Scottish Borders TAG cattle tracing system



beef products from eligible cattle born after 1 August 1996. Tobe eligible, cattle must also fulfil the following basic criteria:

– be aged between six and thirty months at the time of

slaughter– have a complete movement history on the cattle passportand, where appropriate, on the cattle tracing system

– the mother must have survived at least six months after thebirth and must not be a suspected or confirmed case of BSE.

In addition, cattle must be slaughtered in DBES-approvedslaughterhouses and the carcasses cut and processed in export-approved establishments (23).

In advance of farmers sending the animals for slaughter, theslaughterhouse checks the eligibility of each prospective animal

using the MAFF DBES administration unit. The various checksinclude searching the following databases for the necessaryofficial evidence that the mother of the calf survived for sixmonths:

– cattle tracing system (record of a later calving on thedatabase; date of slaughter at a licensed slaughterhouse)

– subsidy schemes (date of claim)

– slaughter schemes (over thirty-month scheme, BSE selectivecull)

– notifiable diseases database (records of sundry diseaseoutbreaks, e.g. anthrax, tuberculosis).

If evidence is insufficient to pass these checks, the animals willnot be sent to a DBES-approved slaughterhouse. For thoseanimals that pass, the database is checked again on the day of slaughter to ensure that the animal is still eligible for exportunder the scheme.

Management of the food supplychainThe Food Safety Act of 1990 was part of the response to thefood crises by the Government of the UK. This legislation wasdrafted to implement the response of the EU Directive 89/397(10). At all points in the food supply chain, ‘due diligence’ mustnow be demonstrated. For the retail end of the supply chain,this has been translated into an increased emphasis ontraceability of all ingredients, in order to assure the consumerand the government inspector that due diligence is in place (6,16, 32).

The House of Commons Select Committee on Agricultureresumed the situation, as follows:

‘From a food safety point of view, the traceability of producethroughout the food chain is of substantial benefit. Multipleretailers have recognised this, and effectively audit theirproduce from the level of the farm until it arrives on their

shelves. As well as allowing multiple retailers to influenceproduction methods in response to changing consumerpreferences, assurance schemes and traceability assist greatly in

pinpointing food safety problems when they arise’ (19).

In addition, the food-processing sector is increasingly usingprocess control approaches based on hazard analysis, criticalcontrol point (HACCP) principles advocated by the Codex

Alimentarius Commission. This is an international initiativeemployed to identify, evaluate and control hazards which aresignificant for food safety (2).

Once converted from an animal to an item of food, traceabilitydepends on similar prerequisites as noted above for animals,namely:

– identification of the item or batch– records of the source and distribution of product.

Although parallels exist with the traceability of livestock, theaudit trail for food items becomes increasingly complex as theitems are mixed, processed or stored for long periods. The firstprerequisite for the continuity of identification through the foodchain is maintenance of a link between the animal and theprimary product. The official animal identification number maybe transferred to the product, but more generally, a cross-reference is maintained between the animal identificationnumber and the identification of the product batch.

Product coding systemsOnce packaged for sale, most food products (and many otheritems such as pharmaceuticals) are labelled with a productcode, generally in the form of a bar code.

Most items are given a batch code or lot number to allow anynecessary tracing in the case of product recall; this is a legalrequirement in the EU. The amended Council Directive89/396/EEC established a framework for a common lot or

batch identification system to facilitate product recall along theentire food chain (10). This was implemented by the Food (LotMarking) Regulations 1996 in the UK (Fig. 4) (20).


Fig. 4Symbol for the EAN 13 product code

The batch code or lot number is provided by the manufacturer,and may be formed from production line numbers, shiftnumbers, time of production, etc., in any combination. This isusually printed on the packaging as a series of letters and



Fig. 5Symbol for EAN 128 coding

Fig. 7Labelling for a pallet quantity of trade items

numbers, but may additionally be encoded within a bar code,such as the EAN128 code (35).

Product codes and lot numbers or batch codes, are generallyprinted on the outer case packaging and pallet label (the ‘tradeitem’) in addition to being printed on the individual retail items.The value of having this ‘secondary’ product information in thebar code is that traceability data can be scanned into thecomputer network of the retailer to automate the maintenanceof an audit trail. Batch or lot numbers in this format may beformed using alphabetic characters, numeric characters, orboth, and may have any length up to a maximum of twentycharacters (Fig. 5).

The ‘sell-by’ or ‘use-by’ date is closely associated with the lotnumber or batch code as a pointer to the date of production.

The product code and the ‘sell-by’ date may therefore be all thatis needed to identify a product for withdrawal from sale, forexample, where the production over a single day is found to bebelow specification. However, this is relatively crude, andtherefore expensive to implement. Full reference to the batchcode allows product recall to be more discriminating.

Example of product coding by a supermarketchain

Standardised bar-coding for the outer packaging of products ina controlled food chain is presented in Figures 6 and 7 (29).

The major retailers use the entire range of modern informationtechnology systems to maintain the source and distributiondata for each batch. Investments in ‘business-to-business’computer systems and associated scanning technology are notmade for traceability alone, but are driven by the need to reducemargins in an intensely competitive industry.

Although bar codes are most commonly used for data entry, theuse of newer technology is becoming more popular. Adevelopment of the bar code is the ‘two-dimensional’ bar code,known as a portable data file (PDF). An example is the PDF417standard which can encode more than a kilobyte of data in


Fig. 6

Labelling for outer case of a trade item



machine-readable code the size of a postage stamp. This can belaser-printed on documents used to accompany shipments of produce, enabling rapid entry of source data to the retailer

network of the receiving depot (Fig. 8). To further automate theprocess of data collection, RFIDs may be attached to containers(such as pallets) and vehicles. Depots and retail premises maybe connected by a wireless local area network (WLAN) tofacilitate data capture and exchange.

Business-to-business exchange

of electronic data According to ECR Europe, a joint trade and industry body, the

efficient consumer response (ECR) movement began in themid-1990s and was characterised by the emergence of new

principles of collaborative management along the supply chain.

Companies realised that consumers could be served better,

faster and at less cost by working together with trading partners

(14).

Two main strands of ECR are relevant to traceability in retailing,

namely: electronic data interchange (EDI) and supply chain

management (SCM). Electronic data interchange refers to

electronic communications or transactions between businesses

via software applications (1).

A simple form of EDI is the use of electronic mail to replace

paper documents in business transactions. A more advanced

implementation of EDI is the use of private wide area network

(WAN) installations.

Food Trak: an example of Internet-basedelectronic data interchange

A computer-based traceability service for the food supply chainhas been developed in the UK by a private company. The FoodTrak service enables information, principally related to food

safety, to be input at the farmer or grower level, checked againstrelevant approved practices, linked with identifiable batches of

food and passed on through a secure Internet connection tonominated parties further along the supply chain (22).

At each stage of production or manufacture, data are loadedonto the Food Trak computer via a modem link or by

telephone. An electronic ‘key’ is passed to the next business in

the supply chain to enable access to the data for that batch. This‘key’ may be encoded into the bar code of the batch (17). When

the finished product reaches a retailer, the full history of allingredients and products is stored on the system, to be accessed

as necessary by the retailer.

Example of electronic data interchange in asupermarket chain

The supermarket chain Tesco has over 500 outlets in the UK.The ordering system is sales-based, collecting information on

product sales from the checkout scanners. These data are sentelectronically to the store control-centre computers. These

computers calculate what items need to be replenished andsend the data to the depot serving that store. Where stock is not

held at the depot, orders are generated automatically andforwarded to suppliers using EDI. By employing such a system,

a replacement can be on the shelves within 24 hours of a sale(15).

Online trading exchange

The latest incarnation of EDI is the concept of the online

trading exchange. Trading exchanges are similar in design tothe ‘hub and spoke’ system of private EDI networks. The

company that runs the exchange is the ‘hub’, and all of thebuyers and suppliers who belong to the exchange are the

‘spokes’. However, instead of expensive private networkinstallations, the trading exchange is configured as an ‘Extranet’.

This uses the technology of the Internet to provide secureglobal data exchange to business subscribers.

Businesses connect to an exchange using standard Internet

browsers. Members conduct transactions by sending

information to the hub, which routes that information to theappropriate party. Documents such as purchase orders, invoices

and shipping notices are typically sent in extensible markuplanguage (XML) format, which allows the receiving companies

to load the documents into their own business systems.

A trading exchange being developed for use by UK multiplefood retailers is GlobalNetXchange, favoured by Sainsbury

(UK) for the ‘Sainsbury information direct’ (SID) service.Carrefour (France) and Metro (Germany) also use

GlobalNetXchange. Tesco, a major rival of Sainsbury in the UK,is developing the ‘Tesco information exchange’ (TIE) on the

world-wide retail exchange, alongside two other major UKretailers, Marks & Spencer and Kingfisher (34).

Supply chain management

Supply chain management is the use of information technologyto plan and control the flow of goods, services, information and

money, back and forth through the supply chain (1). As the use


Fig. 8PDF471 symbology



Name Acronym Use

Complaints analysis reporting system CARES Used by stores to report details on customer complaints and by the company to communicate those

complaints to the relevant supplier

CARES for depots Reporting system used by the distribution network to communicate all product refusals at the point of

receipt and whole load failures

Corporate file management CFM Central database of supplier and item details; maintained by buyers

Crates tracking Monitors all collections of empty plastic crates from RDC sites

Distribution inventory and stock control DISCO Records the movement of stock into and out of RDC sites

Gate house register GHR Records the movement of all vehicles and equipment on and off the RDC site

Office automation system in Sainsbury’s OASIS Sainsbury’s internal electronic mailing system, which can have external links to suppliers

Sales-based replenishment SABRE Store ordering system; orders goods to replenish actual sales and forecasts of sales

Supply chain integrated ordering network SCION Central ordering system; generates purchase orders for suppliers to deliver goods into RDCs

Sainsbury’s information direct SID Online trading exchange

RDC: regional distribution centre

Table IMainframe computer systems in supermarkets: example of J. Sainsbury (29)

of information technology in the commercial world expands,

the retailer is able to shorten the supply chain. The shorter the

chain and the more data shared between vendor and purchaser

by electronic means, the better the quality of the audit trail forany particular batch of product.

The major food retailers use complex computer systems that

maintain stock levels at a commercially-desirable minimum.

Online ‘electronic point-of-sale’ (EPOS) data are now

commonly used as a source of information for the system that

replenishes stocks of produce. The complexity of modern

systems is illustrated by the example presented in Table I.

Farm assurance and whole-

chain assurance schemesSupermarket companies in the UK are engaged in a highly

competitive struggle for market share and have found that

certain guarantees relating to the source, breed, feeding regime

and welfare-friendly management of animals can encourage

consumers to buy their product instead of the product offered

by a competitor. The supermarkets are also keen to differentiate

additional requirements for different end-customers. Own-

label branding is an important factor in the UK. These products

are seen as providing additional assurance through the

supermarket branding, despite carrying a discount against theprice of the traditional brand (13).

The five largest supermarket retailers control approximately

60% of the market for food in the UK. These companies have

therefore become extremely powerful operators in deciding

the future direction of food production. In the recent past,

farmers would have expected to be paid a premium for the

Many retailing organisations have ‘sub-contracted’ the role of source verification to the various producer-driven farmassurance schemes in operation. These schemes rely on acombination of compliance with statutory requirements, suchas the identification of livestock and movement recording, withadditional guarantees designed to provide the necessaryassurance required by the particular ‘added-value’ scheme.Requirements may dictate organic farm practice, keepinganimals in more extensive conditions than those required bylaw, restricting production to certain breeds or geographical


Fig. 9Examples of assurance labels currently used in Great Britain

production of food to certain additional standards. Now thatmargins are reduced, the market works in a different way;much of the market is closed to a farmer who does not

embrace one or more of the assurance schemes designed togive added value. To the consumer, a confusing array of assurance labels now exists (Fig. 9).



locations, etc. These schemes are usually promoted andoperated by producer trade organisations and either self-regulated or controlled by an independent party (4, 9). To

satisfy trading partners, assurance schemes are obtainingaccreditation to the EN45011 standard for product certificationschemes.

Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb

In 1992, Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb (FABBL) wascreated as a limited company by the National Farmers’ Union(NFU), the National Cattle Association, the National Sheep

Association and the Federation of Fresh Meat Wholesalers. Thisis an example of a horizontal partnership, i.e. one that existswithin one part of a supply chain (2).

In common with similar schemes, FABBL is concerned withanimal welfare, origin of stock and feed, feed composition andstorage, housing and handling facilities and the responsible useof veterinary medicines.

Assured British Meat

Half of the beef and lamb in supermarkets in the UK is nowestimated to be from FABBL or the equivalent schemes inScotland and Wales. Overall management and independentverification of compliance with the rules of the (meat) schemeswas instituted by a new producer-driven initiative known as

Assured British Meat (ABM). The agreement between ABM and

FABBL was announced in 1998. Other schemes havesubsequently joined ABM to realise the aim of enhancedconsumer confidence in beef, lamb and pork by establishing asafety assurance framework for the entire supply chain.

The ABM standards cover the manufacture of feedstuffs, on-farm production, transport, livestock markets, abattoirs,caterers, butchers, manufacturers and retailers. All members aresubject to rigorous, independent inspection to ensure that thesestandards are adhered to. For example, the rules of the ABMscheme for multiple retailers include the following with regardto product traceability:

a) an appropriate system must be in place to enable products tobe withdrawn and enable subsequent recall of products whichhave been sold

b) all finished products must be identified in such a manner asto allow the product withdrawal system to operate effectively

c) part-finished or finished products awaiting packing must beclearly labelled with the appropriate description and codinginformation

d) to maintain full traceability, all meat production recordsshould be kept with a record of the supplier (3).

Although the individual parts of the ABM scheme arehorizontal partnerships, the scheme itself is an example of avertical partnership, forged through collaboration betweenparts of a supply chain (2).

National Farmers’ Union British Farm Standardlabel

The process of reorganisation and clarification shown by ABMis continuing: ‘Increasingly, the different parts of the food chainare coming together to produce coherent schemes that cancover a product throughout the food chain’ (22).

The British Farm Standard scheme was launched by the NFUin June 2000, supported by a red tractor logo. This schemecombines six different quality standards (Assured ChickenProduction, Assured Combinable Crops, Assured Produce,

Assured British Meat, National Dairy Farm Assurance Schemeand Assured British Pigs) into one trademark to identify foodwhich meets specific standards of food safety, animal welfareand environmental issues. The scheme was developed, in part,

to address concerns about the proliferation of food labels,which were confusing consumers and creating unnecessaryburdens for producers. It is managed by Assured FoodStandards (AFS) which will seek mutual recognition of schemesin the EU and beyond. Most major retailers in the UK aresupporting the initiative (7).

The role of AFS is both to develop an integrated and commonframework, within which existing assurance schemes canwork, and to license the use of the British Farm Standard logo(25).

Other assurance schemes Assurance schemes do not relate only to health risks and animalwelfare. Organic food is gaining a market share despite thepremium paid by the consumer. Since early 1999, the drive tocertify own-label food items as free of genetically modified(GM) products has been gaining momentum (30).

All such schemes need to be credible to the sophisticatedconsumer. A confusing plethora of industry-funded labellinginitiatives is gradually being replaced by independently auditedassurance programmes. In some cases, labelling claims need tobe supported by scientific evidence, for instance the claim that

an item is free of GM products. Retailers may use their ownlaboratories or contract this work to specialists in the field.

The value of assurance schemes is that many products,especially animal products, are not amenable to being tested ina laboratory to prove the claims on the label. For instance, eggsproduced intensively may be indistinguishable from a ‘welfare-friendly’ variety, so an effective tracing system is the only meansto ensure that the labelling reflects the true contents of thepackage. Traceability is very important in improving long-termcompetitiveness and is made most effective by the developmentof partnerships (8).

Farm assurance schemes may have particular characteristicsdesigned by the retailer for marketing advantage. In this case,the retailer will usually employ an inspection force to ensure




compliance with the rules, non-compliance leading to loss of the contract. Some retailers go as far as requiring their ownaudit visits at all the premises of the suppliers, in addition to the

inspections necessary for retaining membership of theassurance scheme. This is a true vertical partnershiparrangement, where assurance at all stages of the supply chainis managed to the benefit of all parties concerned.

The Partnership in Livestock programme

The Partnership in Livestock programme, introduced in 1990by Sainsbury, was the first of its kind in the UK. Links havebeen developed between the supermarket, processors and thesupplying farms. The farm assurance programme has beenoperated through established national or regional schemes orthrough schemes run by suppliers, which are verified

independently. Trained personnel employed by Sainsbury visitall the abattoirs and randomly selected farms, to monitorstandards (31).

The programme has 12,000 farmer suppliers, all of whom arevisited and accredited individually. This illustrates the pro-active role played by the UK supermarkets in the food supplychain – linking back to individual agricultural producers andusing food technology skills in developing new products andquality assurance (2).

Freedom Foods Ltd

An example of additional animal welfare requirements is theTesco/Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA) Freedom Food label. This sets out to assure, throughindependent inspection, that suppliers meet more stringentanimal welfare conditions. Tesco promotes the Freedom Foodsproducts to the consumer as having no extra cost. However, theproducer has to meet both the direct cost of inspection fees andthe indirect cost of less intensive production (2).

Traceability from farm to the retailer shelves is an importantfacet of the scheme. Accreditation does not stop with theproducer, but continues through inspection and assessment of

hauliers, abattoirs, processors, manufacturers and packers whoare expected to demonstrate product segregation throughoutthe supply chain (33).

The assessors check that throughout the chain, traceability andsegregation procedures are in place to ensure that FreedomFood products are not mixed with non-Freedom Foodproducts (28).

DiscussionThe test of a traceability system is the ability to effectively

remove produce from sale and consumption if any doubt arisesas to the status of the produce. Some multiple retailers, inaddition to providing internal audits, employ third parties tospot-check traceability. A company will be contracted topurchase products at random in the stores and verify the sourcethrough the batch codes on the label. Additionally, the premisesof the producer may be inspected for compliance with theproduction standards of the retailer or any additional declaredfarm assurance standards which relate to the product.

Despite the best endeavours of the retailers, recall of aperishable product will not always be total. Food is generally

purchased for immediate consumption, so will often be eatenbefore the recall is enacted. However, to protect the good nameof the retailer, widespread publicity is usually embarked uponto maximise the response. Honesty is seen to be the best policyfor retaining customer trust and loyalty. Indeed, following thehigh profile food scares of the 1980s and 1990s, trust insupermarkets by consumers is well in excess of the trust for theofficial government bodies which profess to have the welfare of the consumers at heart.

Multiple retailers have become dominant in the UK foodsupply chain, with over 70% of all food purchases being madefrom them and 45% being bought as ‘own label’ products.Multiple retailers have thus become the ‘gate-keepers’ of theindustry (5) and are happy to exploit this position as thechampion of the consumer.


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Traçabilité dans les filières de production animale

et la grande distribution

R.G. Pettitt

RésuméDepuis les années 1950, les consommateurs britanniques savent qu’ils peuventcompter sur des aliments à la fois bon marché et sains. Les incidents survenusdans les années 1980 et 1990 ont cependant ému les consommateurs et provoquéune perte de confiance dans le rôle des producteurs et de l’État en matière desécurité alimentaire. L’auteur examine l’impact de la crise de confiance desconsommateurs au Royaume-Uni, où la vigilance exercée sur l’industrieagroalimentaire a conduit à l’introduction de nouveaux contrôles à tous les stadesde la production. L’industrie de l’alimentation animale, les élevages, les abattages

et l’utilisation ou l’élimination des sous-produits d’origine animale sont désormaissoumis à des contrôles d’une rigueur inimaginable avant la détection del’encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine (ESB) à la fin des années 1980. La

traçabilité est devenue une question importante pour les consommateurs et,partant, pour les nombreux détaillants qui assurent leur approvisionnement. Lesdistributeurs exercent un contrôle de plus en plus étendu sur la chaîne alimentaireafin de garantir des normes élevées et vérifiables par audit. Les distributeurs ontégalement découvert que certains aspects de l’attestation d’origine peuvent avoirune incidence commerciale intéressante. Pour optimiser les ventes sur un marchédéprimé, les groupements de producteurs ont eux-mêmes développé diversprogrammes d’assurance qualité.

Mots-clésAnimaux d’élevage – Assurance qualité – Produits alimentaires – Produits d’origine

animale – Supermarchés – Traçabilité.

Rastreabilidad en el sector agropecuario y en las cadenas de

supermercadosR.G. Pettitt

ResumenDesde los años cincuenta, los consumidores del Reino Unido se han

acostumbrado a disponer de alimentos baratos pero con condiciones de higiene

garantizadas. En los años ochenta y noventa, una serie de episodios provocaron

no sólo la alarma sino también la pérdida de confianza del público en el cometido

de los productores y el Gobierno dentro de la cadena de aprovisionamiento

alimentario. En este artí culo, el autor examina las consecuencias de las recientes

crisis alimentarias en el Reino Unido, donde el sector ha sufrido un proceso

público que ha desembocado en la aplicación de nuevos controles en todas las

fases de la producción. Las fábricas de piensos animales, la producción

ganadera, los mataderos y el uso o descarte de subproductos animales sufrenahora controles de una rigidez inconcebible antes de que se identificara la

encefalopatí a espongiforme bovina (EEB) a finales de los ochenta. La

I




rastreabilidad se ha convertido en una cuestión de gran importancia para los

consumidores y, por delegación, para los numerosos minoristas que abastecen el

mercado. Los minoristas han organizado la cadena alimentaria de forma que sea

posible garantizar y controlar por auditorí a el máximo nivel de calidad. Tambiénhan descubierto que pueden obtener ventajas comerciales de algunos factores

ligados a la obligación de comprobar el origen de los alimentos. Por otra parte,

con el fin de conseguir la mayor cifra de ventas posible en un mercado deprimido,

los propios colectivos de productores han desarrollado múltiples dispositivos de

garantí a de calidad.

Palabras claveAlimentos – Ganado bovino – Garantí a – Productos de origen animal – Rastreabilidad –Supermercados.

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