iProcess project – possibilities for full traceability of all cattle hides processed through Norilia's system back to point of origin.
Traceability is becoming more and more important for many product categories, and hides are no exception. Norilia actively works with improving traceability of cattle hides and has tested methods for providing full traceability of hides throughout the value chain, all the way to the end-user, in the recently finished "iProcess" research project.
Photo: Sintef
Norilia has good traceability of hides from farm, all the way to the tanneries. However, currently there are no traceability methods that allow tracing of individual hides through the tanning process, all the way to the end-user of the finished leather product.
Consumers show more and more interest in traceability related to country of origin, sustainability, animal welfare and so on, but today the options are limited and mostly related to the information that the brand of consumer products provides.
The iProcess project allowed for testing of different methods for traceability of hides through the tanning process. Dot peening, laser etching, and RFID tagging were applied and the readability of these methods after tanning was evaluated. The only traceability method that survived the tanning process was laser etching, and the results show that, for the moment, the tanning process remains a bottleneck in providing full traceability of individual hides through the value chain. However, there are interesting developments abroad regarding the use of DNA technology to trace individual animals throughout the meat value chain, and we follow these developments.
Norilia keeps good track of hides from farm to downstream customers with existing traceability system-based om data transfer from ear tag to a barcode. Trough iProcess project, we have verified that RFID technology provides more reliable traceability and paves the way for higher level of automation. We also got promising results from Laser etching, which we will in collaboration with our customer and the field scientists keep testing until the goal of full traceability is obtained.
iProcess is a recently finished research project, led by Sintef Ocean and funded by the Norwegian Research Council. This project involved many national and international research and industry partners. Research focused on sensor technology, imaging techniques, big data and value chains, and possibilities on food innovations. Norilia participated in two activities on sensory technology. The hide traceability was in collaboration with Sintef Ocean and RFID solutions. Read more about the project here: http://iprocessproject.com/
