The recent legislative changes and drive towards improved livestock traceability is the result of recent disease outbreaks of BSE (Mad Cow Disease), Foot and Mouth and Bluetongue.
These events have highlighted the inadequacies of the existing traceability systems and have caused immeasurable disruption and financial losses to all involved in the food chain. At the same time consumers are increasingly concerned by food scare stories and seek reassurance through appropriate controls.
New European Union legislation requires that all UK breeding sheep born after 31 December 2009 be recorded and traced individually and be identified with Electronic Identification (EID) tags. These sheep with EID tags must be individually identified on farm records from the same date and on movement documents from 1 January 2011.
These new directives are expected to substantially improve the traceability of livestock throughout the EU. Events that now have to be recorded individually include:-
Supermarkets control between 60% – 70% of red meat sales and are increasingly demanding greater traceability to enable them to guarantee the source, quality and safety of the products that they supply. The entire food supply chain faces the challenge of meeting statutory and consumer demands for improved traceability by using modern technology to overcome the costs and proven inefficiencies of the old paper based systems. The market is driven by statutory compliance requirements and the need for improved management systems. The StockTrace integrated solution enables farmers to meet statutory requirements regarding veterinary drug treatments, preventing any animal from entering the food chain during a drug withdrawal period.
Animal data gathered on the farm is passed on automatically by the software, providing a seamless link between the farm, market and final destination of the animals. This data can include lifetime movement history, Farm Assurance and Organic Status and all recent drug treatments relating to animals on an individual basis. This gives the farmer confidence that he is meeting all his Food Chain Information (FCI) requirements.
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