Beef is considered to be one of the most consumed meat categories around the globe. People love to cook and eat beef in various ways, such as burgers, barbecue, sandwiches, continental dishes, steaks, tikka, kebabs and many more. Daily huge amount of cows of various types are slaughtered and after processing beef is then supplied to the market which then reaches to our society’s meat shops. Now the real question that arises here is what are the steps taken to measure the beef traceability in the meat industry?
Nowadays, beef traceability is becoming a great challenge for most of the companies in this industry. Due to increasing demand of beef products such as steaks, chops, ribs, etc. from each cow, a proper traceability system needs to be invented or designed to keep a proper track of daily products supplied in the market. Now, since there are various types of beef categories preferred by beef lovers in the market, so accordingly the system for beef traceability should be designed in such a way that it should meet the consumer needs and must be easier for the meat industry as well to maintain the outflow of daily production
Beef traceability if applied at every process of the production can add value to farmers as well to the supply chain department of companies supplying the meat. Moreover, many meat industries are seeking various ways and techniques to implement on traceability of the daily production techniques in order to promote the quality of their products. You will be surprised to know that most of the beef traceability projects have proven to be failure most of the time. Traceability solutions providers cannot just sit in their office design solutions and launch it in the market. For accurate results and to implement proper strategy they need to visit livestock farms, talk to the farmers who raise cattle and visit slaughterhouses to get a better idea for beef traceability. Following are the challenges that solution providers must be prepared to face:
1. Designing of Business Model
Meat companies mainly face this challenge due to insufficient funds or lack of interest. To find the right beef traceability project, it is essential that meat companies must develop a proper business model.
2. Consult Various Authorities
To get the business model designed and implemented, it’s highly recommended that you should be an expert in consulting national authorities and motivating them to participate in the implementation of beef traceability program as they are the ones having the power to make regulations, approve them from local governments.
3. Traceability Cost Issues
Many meat companies fail to get traceability projects due to the traceability costs that they bare for awareness of supply chain staff, on the other hand companies are least bothered in using the technology that can give them exact traceability figure, as they fear hiring someone to implement this technology will incur a lot of cost.
4. Dealing with Conflicts
Beef traceability system seems to be a big threat to all those companies that deal in illegal activities in terms of using injected sedatives to the cows in order to get better meat, more weight, color and less use of refrigerator to save meat preserving cost. To fight such type of criminals, you need to be very conscious if you are dealing in the meat industry.
Angelique Chrisafis is the Guardian’s Paris correspondent. She is responsible for churning out quality articles based on her research while keeping an eye on the tech world. She likes technology, gadgets, and food. Works as an individual contributor to the team.
