Tracking Food Products From Farm To The Fork
A prototype system designed to help consumers,
farmers and other interested parties trace the geographic origin of food at all
stages of production from 'farm to fork' - storage, processing and distribution
- has been developed by researchers.
A prototype system designed to help consumers, farmers and other interested parties trace the geographic origin of food at all stages of production from ‘farm to fork’ - storage, processing and distribution - has been developed by researchers.
In the wake of successive outbreaks of food-borne disease in the past decade (think mad cow disease, E.coli, salmonella, etc) and the current fear over the possible spread of avian flu, public demand for tighter safeguards on the entire food production chain has never been greater.
“Americans in particular prefer to certify the quality of a product according to its brand and attach no real importance to its origin. European consumers, by contrast, want to know where the food that they eat has come from.”
“The main benefit is that geotraceability is fully objective and certifies the declaration of origin made by the farmer or producer. Today more than 80 per cent of existing data can be geolocalised and thus visualised on the Internet using geoportals such as Google Earth,” …says Michel Debord [project coordinator].
Interesting. Could get more interesting.
Posted: Wed - February 8, 2006 at 06:01 AM