From farm to fork

Thanks to innovative technology and determined efforts, knowing where your pork comes from will soon be much easier.

Story by Kieran Brett AND Jennifer Fisk •  Illustration by Caroline Hamel

After the first BSE cow was found in 2003, the livestock industry became even more aware of the importance of having a food system that can identify where any animal has been at any stage of its life. Canada's pork industry is taking this lesson very seriously and has a variety of initiatives underway to assure you of the safety and quality of what ends up on your plate.

One of these initiatives is an innovative technology drawn from human medical science: Maple Leaf Foods has been pioneering technology that uses DNA to quickly trace their pork products back to the pig as well as the farm where it came from. To make this possible, over 30,000 hogs from 23 Alberta farms have been blood-typed over the past few years. With all of the sows' (female hog) DNA on a database, Maple Leaf has the capacity to track a meat sample back to the farm and animal of origin.

Maple Leaf's system makes their product stand out in the marketplace. "We see this as a way to differentiate Canadian pork on the world market, since competitors such as the U.S. and Denmark can't provide the same level of assurance," explains John Webb, the director of genetics and science at Maple Leaf Foods. While the DNA program is limited in scope right now, Webb believes that the program can be made cost effective enough to roll out to pork producers across Canada. Maple Leaf intends to share its DNA technology with the rest of the industry in years to come.

While Maple Leaf pursues this new technology, the pork industry is also leading other initiatives to develop a national traceability system to track animals as they move throughout the food system. As the possibility of a foreign animal disease increases due to the movement of farm animals and people, and with the potential risks of bioterrorism, the pork industry has to ensure it has a solid plan to prepare for the challenges of a disease outbreak or a food safety crisis.

"Traceability is of the utmost importance to the industry. Hog producers are eagerly working towards the implementation of a national hog traceability system," says Dennis McKerracher, a pork producer from High River. "Traceability is a complementary tool that can be used with our Canadian Quality Assurance food safety program to answer the questions of consumers with regards to origin and safety of their food."

The pork industry already has several measures in place, including animal tattooing and tagging. The industry has a goal of being able to collect information on every animal in the system. Through their ongoing work with other livestock groups, the industry soon expects to be in a position where all livestock, not just hogs, could be followed and traced wherever they happen to travel in the system. This will make it easier to respond in the event of a disease or food safety crisis.