Quality Assurance and Traceability of Foods of Animal Origin -Major Findings from the Research Project IT FoodTrace

摘要

Based on the information needs of stakeholders (from animal feed to consumers, including the authorities and organizations involved) an integrated IT-system without structural fractures and barriers shall be developed. It will be designed to enable the merging, internal exchange and utilization of relevant data and parameters. Subprojects of the interdisciplinary research consortium cover the entire supply chain and also address cross-section issues, such as logistics, costs and benefits, veterinarian services, quality assurance systems, a comprehensive IT-solution including data format standards (agroXML), and requirements for sustainability. Substantial added value has been generated from intensive interdisciplinary co-operation. The interdisciplinary research project IT FoodTrace (www.itfoodtrace.de) aims at achieving traceability and quality assurance along the food chain of "meat and meat products ".The aim this paper is the presentation of a) the complexity of underlying problems, b) the project structure, c) available results from selected sub-projects and d) the added values from interdisciplinary cooperation. Selected findings include an optimized single animal data collection and information management in livestock systems, benefits gained by linking animal-health-related information to an integrated animal-health system, requirements and features of an integrated IT-System, including consequences for data protection and security, and findings from a Delphi-based cost-benefit-analysis of an integrated quality assurance and traceability system.