BMA brings traceability to supermarket meat

Consumers buying fresh chicken and pork from supermarket shelves in Bangkok can feel more confident about the quality and safety of the food, thanks to a pilot project initiated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).

The project, called Development of e-Traceability of Meat for Consumers in Bangkok Supermarkets, uses technology to support city businesses as well as protecting consumers.

The director of the Veterinary Public Health Division of the BMA's Health Department, Sompop Chatraporn, said the BMA was working with five other participants in the pilot project: the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), the Betagro Group, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), the Pon-Yang-Khram Breeding Cooperative NSC and the beef producers' cooperative at Kasetsart University's Kamphaeng Saen campus.

The project aims to create consumer confidence, ensuring that buyers of supermarket meat can expect safe foods that have been processed and distributed according to high standards. It also gives consumers the opportunity to take part in controlling the quality of meat, so they can be assured that it is up to standard.

The Industrial Engineering Department of UTCC's School of Engineering has been responsible for developing software and applications to support the project. Lecturer Chalermchon Visayadamrong said supermarket customers who bought fresh chicken and pork produced by Betagro and CPF, and which had a BMA trademark, could trace the products back from the supermarket shelf to their point of origin.

They can do this by using the lot number or trace number printed on the package and tracing the origin of the products back to the farm via mobile phone, by accessing http://trace.utcc.ac.th, or by visiting kiosks provided at The Mall supermarkets.

Customers wanting to find the origin of meat via mobile phones can use the short messaging system (SMS) to type "TM", then provide a space before entering the lot or trace number, and sending the message to (02) 454 5111. The system will reply in real time to the sender's phone with information on the original products, including the type of goods, production date and expiry date, farm name and slaughterhouse name.

Customers will therefore be able to trace where the products came from, the standard farm and production processes it passed through, the type of goods, farm code, production date and expiry date. Not only will this raise consumer confidence, but the system is also expected to promote and develop higher standards and reliability in value-added meat products.

"The traceability system will increase the opportunities for customers to examine the data," Sompop said. "In the near future, BMA will bring every producer in Bangkok under the traceability system and will expand it to other food products with meat ingredients and similar products. At present, about 20 per cent of meat products on supermarket shelves can be traced back to their origin."

Sompop said the BMA planned in the near future to expand the project to support small- and medium-sized enterprises that wanted to increase the standards of their production processes to create value-added products and boost their productivity.