Horsemeat or not, we need traceability
-Gary Hartley, GS1 New Zealand Will it be the beef, vegetable or horsemeat lasagne this evening Madam? Europe’s mounting horsemeat scandal will provide a rich diet of jokes for some time. A ‘hoofdunnit’ is how British papers are describing the urgent investigation into how Romanian horsemeat ended up in French supermarkets posing as beef in heat-and-eat dinners. Of course it’s no laughing matter for French food manufacturer Comigel or for its suppliers who risk huge brand damage. And the episode is a great reminder to New Zealand’s meat industry – farmers, processors, marketers and distributors -about the importance of truthfully representing products to the consumer and indeed, to every other party in the supply chain. We can safety assume that no New Zealand meat export supply chain looks as bizarre or as unappetising as that of Comigel. The latter was buying frozen meat through a chain that included French, Dutch and Cypriot traders, with the meat source (unknown to Comigel till the scandal broke) being a Romanian slaughter house. Our meat products are rather less commoditised and our supply chains less opaque. But horsemeat is horsemeat. The core principle is the same for every product and every supply chain -you have to know what you are selling or buying, and to be able to truthfully inform others about it. That horsemeat is, anyway, widely eaten in parts of continental Europe is hardly the point. The scandal breaks at a time of increasing sensitivity to the core principle among European consumers, regulators and food companies. Have no doubt that the stakes are about to rise for everyone who supplies meat for consumption in France, Holland or the United Kingdom (where there is absolutely no appetite for horsemeat). Just as well we have technology that can enable whole-of-supply-chain track and trace on […]