Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 58

TRACEABILITY

America to use Identigen's forensic-style
er, adding pennies per pound adds up
DNA tracking to trace its products back
quickly for larger, commodity-based
to the farm. Don Marvin, Identigen's presiprocessors. "But we're able to deliver
dent and CEO, says what was true among
added value and engender trust with
consumers in Ireland, where Identigen's
consumers, which is what the retailers
DNA TraceBack system was developed, is
are seeking."
proving true in the U.S. as well: Consumers
want to know. "Particularly now, consumU.S. applications
ers want to know more about food producIdentigen's technology involves analyzing individual DNA samples from each
tion and they want to know where their
meat products come from. And they want
animal, "Similar to the use of DNA for
to know that they're getting what they're
forensic identiﬁcation of humans," Marvin
says. The process starts at the farm level
paying for," he says.
and is linked to samples taken at the proMarvin calls the partnership with Nacessing plant and ultimately at the retail
ture's Premium Brand and its storied CEO,
"Simply put, this program equates to
level. "During the process, we generate
John Stewart, a milestone event for his com- trust", Nature's Premium Brand founder
pany. He points out that DNA trace-back and CEO, John Stewart. (Photo courtesy of
large numbers of unique DNA proﬁles
technology is nothing new among Euro- Nature's Premium Brand LLC)
that are created for pennies per pound,"
pean processors and has been widely used
very similar to the way the process is
for about 10 years. Because of the more robust volumes of completed in Europe. Before bringing the technology to the
many processors in the U.S., however, the same type of sys- U.S., however, the technology had to be "industrialized."
"The markets here as compared to Ireland and Great Brittems have not been readily adaptable for use in America, but
ain are gargantuan," Marvin says. Technology developers in
that challenge isn't as insurmountable as it once was.
Known as somewhat of an industry maverick, John Stew- England worked with Marvin's team to facilitate the appliart is also regarded by Marvin as one of the most innovative cation in higher-volume plants. The goal was to miniaturmarketers in the meat industry. "It's not surprising then, that ize the system's hardware and keep the costs to a miniJohn would ﬁnd his way to us or us ﬁnd our way to John," mum to remain competitive. At pork processing plants, the
says Marvin, because the beneﬁts provided by DNA traceback samples are taken in various points. However, with cattle,
address the needs of Stewart's year-old venture in the pork the samples are taken at the hot scale. Both applications
industry. "Our system supports marketing of branded meat use the sampling tool from Identigen, developed by its
to verify country of origin and to validate marketing claims parent company in Dublin, Ireland. The sampling device
and product attributes. That is a major marketing message resembles a pencil with a bar-coded cap. The bar code is
read and linked with the carcass ID at the plant level and
that [Stewart] delivers with Nature's Premium pork."
In an industry where there are few strangers, it isn't sur- a sharp edge of the instrument is scraped across the carprising to fathom that Marvin and Stewart's paths crossed sev- cass. The instrument is then placed back in its container
eral years ago, back in the days when Stewart was CEO of with a bar-coded cap and shipped overnight to Identigen's
Arkansas City, Kan.-based Creekstone Premium Beef. Stewart laboratory in Lawrence, where samples are proﬁled and
"semi-retired" from that role in 2006 and started up Nature's cataloged within 24-48 hours of arriving. The technology
Premium in 2007. "We knew he was working on something is, indeed, able to keep pace with some North American
in the pork area and it became an obvious conversation to line speeds where plant workers are trained in how to obtain an adequate sample.
have when he was ready to have it," says Marvin.
Because many of the Identigen founders worked on farms
For Nature's Premium, the technology is used as a marand ranches earlier in life before the Dublin-based company keting tool to ensure customers the product claims are valid.
started the company, "We understand the business," Marvin As the head of Triad, a branding company, Stewart was intersays, as evidenced by what he calls a seamless integration ested in offering branded pork and he knew to be competiinto the operational structures of processors. "There's no capi- tive, the only option was to compete in the premium side,
tal equipment to purchase; it's a simple sampling device that reasoning that: "Unless you're the Tysons or Cargills of the
we supply them," and plant employees can be easily trained world that have the big plants, competing on a commodity
to take the samples. The goal, he says, is to not affect line level just wouldn't work for us."
Market research conducted before Stewart and his Triad team
speed or add capital cost or additional labor.
"At the end of the day, the cost is a penny or two per rolled out the pork brand indicated that beyond good taste
pound at the retail level," says Marvin. He realizes one or and meat tenderness, consumers care about animal welfare,
two cents is easier to absorb for smaller, specialty processors, type of feed used to produce the animal and whether or not
whose products typically are priced at a premium. Howev- they were given medication, including antibiotics. Initially, the
58

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September 2008

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