Norway: Nortura Food Group to track poultry meat

The company has a long term vision of tracing chicken, beef, lamb and pork from an animal’s birth to the consumer’s plate.

The expansive plan is starting with phase one of a pilot involving Nortura’s information technology subsidiary, Matiq. IBM is providing software and integration services for the project.

Matiq began researching RFID technology options years ago, to enable tracking meat as it moves from the processing plant to the store. More recently, it teamed up with IBM to plan Nortura’s first pilot, which will launch this autumn at two animal harvesting facilities, one distribution centre and one supermarket.

The interest in animal tracking is not a novel concept to the Norwegian food industry. The nation’s government has set a 2010 deadline for standards and policy regarding food traceability as part of its e-Traceability (eSporing) programme.

This programme is intended to increase food safety through visibility from the farm to the store.

Nortura is Norway’s largest food supplier. The company provides 54% of the consumer meat products sold in the country and 73% of the animals butchered.