Advance Food Traceability System

Monitoring Foods Along The Supply Chain – Researchers target a new era of enhanced quality control.

By Johnny Roberts

A cross-Canada research team is developing an innovative traceability system to ensure the authenticity of foods and other consumer goods as they move along the supply chain. 

Canadians have grown increasingly concerned about food quality and safety, and where their food comes from. The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates 10 per cent of all foods are adulterated in some manner; that is, they contain unidentified or incorrectly indentified ingredients. For example, products claiming to be produced locally may contain raw materials from foreign sources that were introduced somewhere along the food chain.

With more frequent food-borne illness outbreaks and more cases of food and product adulteration, researchers believe consumers are more interested than ever in knowing where their food has been and who has handled it. In response, University of Saskatchewan Professor, Nick Low, Department of Food and Bioproduct Services, and Jill Hobbs, Department of Business, are working with University of Guelph Professor, Andreas Boecker, Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, and Robert Hanner, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario.

They are developing an internal traceability system for foods, pharmaceuticals and bioproducts by directly adding molecular tags to products during their initial processing stage so that they can be monitored throughout the entire supply chain.

The tags are carbohydrate- and genetic material-based, and can be produced as water- or oil-soluble. These tags can be added at any point during the processing stage of a product, and have been shown to be stable in common food and bioproduct processing conditions.

Some tags possess a specific type of coating, which makes them more versatile and more tolerant of their environment.

The versatility of this traceability system is important to producers in various fields. These internal tags are similar to the personal identification number (PIN) used in banking. Just like a PIN, they can be changed at any time. They can also be modified to monitor any product, from clothing to fuel and even pharmaceuticals.

Low says these tags will enable companies to have more control over product quality and will increase product quality assurance for consumers.

“This traceability system allows consumers to have more faith in the products that they buy. Companies can be more confident in the ingredients that they purchase and be sure that their finished products haven’t been tampered with either in part or in whole,” he says.

This new traceability system is being approached from both a natural science and a social science perspective, to investigate how consumers and industry will accept this novel tagging system and whether the government will approve it. An important part of this research will measure consumers’ willingness to buy products possessing the internal tags.

Says research team member Boecker: “The approval process with Health Canada is clearly laid out, but we also need to determine whether consumers, manufacturers and retailers will accept the technology. Communication and information play a crucial role in the adoption process. In our research, we aim to identify barriers to adoption.”

Funding for this research is supplied by AFMNet.

About AFMNET:The Advanced Foods and Materials Network (AFMNet) is Canada’s national food and bio-materials research network. Together, our researchers are presenting new ideas and developing new biology-based technologies to produce commercially viable, socially acceptable value-added products and processes that benefit all Canadians. http://www.afmnet.ca/