Implementing Traceability In The Beef Industry

For years, the cattle industry has talked about the need for traceability.  One company that has moved forward with a traceability program is reporting positive results.  Brad Morgan with the Performance Food Group says having a reliable traceability system is something customers want.

“We finally just decided, you know what, we’re going to go ahead and do it ourselves.  We call it path proven that’s our marketing term for it, but we take a DNA sample from each one of the cattle that go into our program, we can take a hamburger patty for instance, and determine just which carcass it came from.”

For PFG customers, Morgan said traceability offers many benefits, outside of being able to determine from which cow meat comes.

“It keeps the packer honest, we know the cattle that are going to go into our box, are only the cattle that are fed at one of our cooperating feed yard partners, and another thing that we’re able to do is we’re able to upgrade, using that DNA sample, which carcasses are going to be consistent, which are going to produce something that grades out at choice or higher, we can use that to trace back to that cattle; where do they come from, which particular ranch, because we want to go back to that particular ranch and get more of them.”

Morgan adds the traceability program at PFG shows the hard work of the beef industry in the United States.

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