A framework for beef traceability from farm to slaughter using global standards: An Irish perspective

A system that can be used to identify all aspects of beef traceability from farm to slaughter has been laid out based on pertinent European Union law and global standards. An integrated traceability system involving all of the stakeholders along the supply chain can serve to increase consumer confidence in beef products by making traceability data accessible to the consumer. The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) for the identification of individual cattle, and biometric identifiers for verification of cattle identity has been proposed. The use of a BioTrack database for the storage of retinal images has been outlined. A data structure for RFID tags has been proposed in accordance with ISO 11784 and a middleware to convert animal ID data to the EPC (electronic product code) data structure, in order to facilitate the use of EPCglobal Network for the exchange of traceability data. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.