Meat Traceability Software: from Carcass to Customer in One Genealogy

Section 320.1 requires covered businesses, including those that slaughter, prepare, package or label meat products, to keep records that fully and correctly disclose all transactions involved in the business. Records are kept 2 years after 31 December of the year the transaction occurred, and longer when FSIS requires it for an investigation (320.3).

Under 9 CFR 418.2, an official establishment must notify the local FSIS District Office within 24 hours of learning or determining that adulterated or misbranded product it received or produced has entered commerce, including type, amount, origin and destination. Fast, accurate lot records make that information easier to give.

Each step that combines or splits product, from primals to trim, grind, emulsion and retail pack, creates a new lot that must point back to its inputs. Record source lots and quantities at each step, along with the cleanup or changeover between runs where your plan depends on it.

Establishments producing post-lethality exposed ready-to-eat product follow 9 CFR 430 controls for Listeria monocytogenes. Linking sampling results and sanitation records to the product lots they cover helps you decide what an adverse result affects.

Choose a real raw lot and a real customer shipment, trace both ways, and check the answer against source records. Record how long it took and what was missing, and fix those gaps first.