DEVELOPMENT OF AN ICT-BASED TRACEABILITY SYSTEM IN COMPOUND FEED INDUSTRY

The term traceability refers to recording of movements of products along the food chain from production to consumption. This includes all intermediate applications involved in processing and combining inputs into new products throughout the supply chain. The aim for establishing traceability in the food chain is to provide the timely identification and removal of any batches of product from the market when a risk threatens the health of consumers. Since compound feed products are basic inputs in livestock and poultry production, ICT-based feed traceability systems should be established to realize an efficient initial step in food traceability management. Feed traceability systems are simply information recording systems that are designed to trace and track the flow of animal feed and their characteristics along the feed supply chain. This paper describes the architecture and some functional properties of a feed traceability system named as the “feedTRace”, focusing particularly on compound feed and integrated poultry meat industries. The feedTRace aims to improve compound feed supply chain management, to increase feed safety and quality control, and to gain marketing competencies with traceable products in compound feed industry. The system is currently under beta stage, and is tested in two high capacity feed factories and an integrated broiler company located in Adana province of Turkey.