Facilitating pork product traceability, authentication and recalls

Feile Foods, a fully licensed Irish meat processor in Portlaoise, Ireland, took a proactive approach by investing in technology and the GS1 System.

Results

Feile achieved success through the ability to record batch numbers that can be matched with customers through loyalty card schemes, enabling recall. In addition, they are in a position to meet regulatory responsibilities through a data rich track-and-trace system.

The experience of the Feile Foods implementation will lead to a more rigorous and visible supply chain. It will also enable the retail industry to improve product traceability, management of short-shelf-life products and effectively authenticate products passing through the point of sale.

Situation

The Pork Dioxin contamination crisis led to the total recall of Irish pork products, cost the sector €1 billion and highlighted how farm-to-fork traceability was a broken chain that needed to be fixed.

Feile Foods implemented GS1 barcodes and product identification to improve the authenticity and traceability of its fresh meat products.

As a substantial part of the business involves producing products sold in retail outlets, Feile saw the benefit in becoming an early adopter of GS1 DataBar and GS1 standards.

Approach

Feile Foods was looking to automate as much of its supply chain as possible and identified barcode scanning solutions as a way to reduce errors.

GS1 DataBar delivers enhanced product identification at retail point of sale. The ability to store additional information such as lot number and expiry dates can support product authentication, traceability and product recalls.