Technologies in individual animal identification and meat products traceability

An effective and trustworthy traceability system contributes to improving food quality and safety and responds to consumers’ demand for food provenance information. Safe meat and its products are crucial to consumers and society. Livestock feeding regime and geographical origin are closely related to the properties and the safety of animal origin food, but the information is often invisible to consumers, which makes is easier to use fraudulent practices throughout the whole supply chain. Technologies and their proper use in traceability systems are important for the safety of animal origin foods. An essential component in an integrated traceability chain includes individual animal identification and trace back of related meat products. In this review, we examine the technologies for individual animal identification, including the radio frequency identification system and DNA fingerprinting. For meat products, traceability technologies focus on the chemical components fingerprinting, including measurement of stable isotope ratios, mineral element tracing and organic component fingerprinting. Also, future trends in food traceability systems need to be improved to promote the establishment of more efficient and trustworthy traceability systems to ensure food safety and quality up to standard.