Consumers can use smartphones to 'check' clean or 'dirty' meat

Applying technology to the traceability management system, consumers in Ho Chi Minh City can use smartphones to check the origin of pork.

Traceability technology is part of the project "Pilot market model for food safety" assigned by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to the Department of Industry and Trade to implement in the period 2016 - 2020.

Accordingly, the Department of Industry and Trade has just reported to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on solutions to ensure pork safety by applying information technology to control and trace food origins.

The Ho Chi Minh City High Technology Association is the unit assigned to research and deploy pork traceability technology. The technology is based on the European “Te-card” platform. Pork when managed by this technology application chain will be through a stamp.

Consumers can use their smartphones to scan the "stamp" and immediately know all the information: origin of the pig farm, date of sale, name of the quarantine officer (farm), time of slaughter, slaughterhouse, quarantine officer (slaughterhouse), name of the wholesale market, name of the wholesale agent, name of the retail market, name of the trader, time of import, time of sale...

To access information, pigs at farms are fitted with an identification ring on their hind legs (produced using laser engraving technology in Malaysia, heat-resistant, high-strength, anti-counterfeit and cannot be removed or reinstalled), the tracking mode is continuously activated until the pig is sold. Pigs that meet the standards are issued an electronic veterinary quarantine certificate.

Photo: Diep Duc Minh; Thanh Nien

The total cost of tracing a pig from farm to table is 9,800 VND. The information is stored for up to 10 years in a database.

With just a smartphone with an installed application, consumers can check the origin of meat anytime, anywhere.

However, some people think that it is necessary to pay attention to the distribution stage. Accordingly, when meat is brought to the market, it is divided into small quantities for sale, and the stamps that retailers buy can be put on floating foods that have not been quarantined. Therefore, even though consumers look at the stamp to see that the meat is clean, no one actually knows the origin of the meat.

The program is expected to initially be implemented at 12 centralized slaughterhouses, 2 wholesale markets: Binh Dien and Hoc Mon; 5 retail markets: Ben Thanh, Hoa Binh, Bau Cat, Thai Binh, An Dong; supermarket chains: Co.opmart, Satra Foods, Vissan and Sagrifoods.

After the pilot test with pork, it will be expanded to the entire city and other items such as vegetables, fruits, etc.

According to Tri Thuc Tre