Food safety is becoming a growing concern with today's consumer. To ensure that food is top quality "from gate to plate," both producers and processors needed to be able to trace back the source of any problems that might occur.
With funding help from the P.E.I. ADAPT Council (which administers the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund in the province for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), the new Atlantic Beef Products Inc. plant in Albany has a new traceability system that is the envy of the industry.
"We are just getting the system installed now and it should be up and running in late October or early November," said Kirk McGrath, the plant's general manager. "As with any new technology, it will take some time to work any kinks out."
When the system is fully operational, McGrath said they will be able to trace any cut of meat to the exact animal it came from and the time and date it went through the facility. On the processing line, the computer technology tells the worker the next cut that will be taken off the animal on the line.
"It should be relatively easy for our workers to use," he said. "It is really amazing exactly what the system can do – it is something that wouldn't be thought of even ten years ago." McGrath said once the technology is fully operational, the plant plans to hold an official opening. They have been processing cattle since December of 2004 and he said they are slowly but surely moving up to the weekly capacity of 500 animals per week. The plant manager said it has been somewhat of a challenge to install the new
equipment while maintaining day-to-day operations. However, he is confident the inconvenience will be worth it in the end.
Producers have the largest share in the plant (the Prince Edward Island government is a minority shareholder) that processes product exclusively for the Atlantic Tender Beef line sold in Co-op Atlantic stores. While the plant handles cattle from all three Maritime provinces, approximately 80 per cent of the animals slaughtered come from Prince Edward Island. The facility has a full-time workforce of over 60 and an annual payroll of $2.5 million.
The chair of the plant's board of directors is hoping the technology will give Maritime beef producers an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Dean Baglole said the technology will likely become the standard in the beef processing industry and he sees a real advantage being in on the ground floor. Baglole said the key to making the plant a reality was building partnerships not only between beef producers in the three Maritime provinces but with the federal and Prince Edward Island governments and Co-op Atlantic. He is hoping that having a plant within the region will help producers weather any future downturns like the closure of the U.S. border due to the discovery of mad cow disease in Alberta.