Farm to Plate
This week I am talking to Steve Sands, Vice President of Protein Performance Food Group which has developed one of the first-of-its-kind DNA-based traceability systems for food.
We discuss the supply chain in food including the old systems that were primarily about reducing cost, making everything faster and cheaper but in the wake of these changes the quality and treatment of livestock suffered. We may have the cheapest food supply in the world where less than 7% of our income goes on food but that’s no longer enough or even the customer demand. As he notes what people are looking for in their food is no longer simply cheaper (although some still do) and what they find now is a much more customized set of requirements that can vary around the environment, feeds used and the environment the animals are raised in.
As they looked at providing more customized solutions they realized that the system of verifying was inadequate, e essentially being based on trusting the food producers and their declaration of the livestock being “grass fed” for example.
They approached this problem with science and using genomic identification technology from IdentiGEN they can trace food back to the original animal and source validating the chain and verifying claims such as Angus, Kosher, Organic, Grass Fed, etc
The history of the innovation of IdentiGo from Ireland is interesting (hint it was linked to the emergence of BSE in Europe) and uses a simple tagging device that is linked to the animal from birth and allows food to be traced back from the plate to the individual farm and group.
They are only just starting to explore the potential as he describes the possibilities for much more limited food recalls that are able to narrow the problem source of food and bring the tracing capabilities to other food groups including poultry, pigs, and even fish
Listen in to hear his Incremental learning point
- You have to be in partnership with everyone involved in the supply chain
- Competing against your suppliers and playing them off against each other is counterproductive to the supply, quality, and outcome for everyone
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