Summary: The traceability of the meat supply chain relies on the complete and true CTEs and KDEs that are collected from the farm to the point of sale for the different types of meat, i.e., poultry, beef, and pork. The application of rigorous data standards enhances food safety as well as recall readiness. Lowry Solutions combines RFID and barcode technologies to support this process and help with visibility and compliance.
Part 5 in our blog series on Food Traceability is from Tejas Bhatt, one of our guest speakers at our Food Traceability Summit that is taking place right here in Brighton, Michigan on August 19th. The original source is from “A Guidance Document on The Best Practices in Food Traceability”, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, Vol. 13, pp. 1074-1103 by Jianrong Zhang and Tejas Bhatt. We are breaking down the document into different blogs leading up to the event. This section talks about the meat supply chain. If you missed part four on dairy supply chain, you can find the link here.
Meat supply chain
For food traceability purposes, the meat and poultry sector can be further divided into three subcategories: beef, pork, and poultry. Other meats that are consumed at lower volumes than beef, pork, and poultry would follow similar traceability practices, often supported by RFID technology to improve tracking efficiency. Figures 5 and 6 show the typical stakeholders in the meat and poultry sector supply chain.
Figure 6. Critical tracking events for meat and poultry
While supply chains for specific meat and poultry commodities vary greatly, the overarching flow of food is fairly similar (see Figure 6 as example). It usually starts with the birth of the animal, followed by maturing, slaughtering, butchering, processing, distributing, and POS.
The Meat Supply Chain: Why Traceability Is So Critical
The meat supply chain is one of those super-regulated and complex food ecosystems because it handles living animals, biological transformation, and lots of different handling steps before it even reaches the consumer.
Unlike packaged goods, meat products will change their identity more than once. So traceability isn’t really a one-time thing; it’s a steady, ongoing process. Each stage has to be documented carefully, with solid accuracy, so safety is protected, legal obligations are met, and recall readiness stays possible if something goes wrong.
From Farm to Fork: A Multi-Stage Journey
The meat supply chain typically follows a structured but highly dynamic flow:
- Birth and rearing of livestock
- Feeding and growth management
- Transportation to processing facilities
- Slaughtering and primary processing
- Cutting, packaging, and labeling
- Cold storage and warehousing
- Distribution to retailers or food service
- Point-of-sale (POS) purchase
At each step, traceability data must be captured and linked to the product’s identity to maintain full visibility.
The Role of CTEs and KDEs in Meat Traceability
Traceability is built on two key components:
Critical Tracking Events (CTEs)
These define what happens in the supply chain:
- Feeding and animal movement
- Slaughter and processing
- Shipping and receiving
- Packaging and repackaging
- Disposal or waste handling
Key Data Elements (KDEs)
These define context around each event:
- Who handled the product
- Where the event occurred
- When it happened (date/time)
- What product or batch was involved
- Identifiers like lot numbers, animal IDs, or trailer numbers
Together, CTEs and KDEs create a complete digital history of each meat product.
How RFID and Barcode Technology Improve Visibility
Modern traceability systems rely heavily on automation technologies such as RFID and barcodes.
RFID Benefits:
- Real-time, non-line-of-sight tracking
- Faster scanning in high-volume environments
- Reduced manual entry errors
- Continuous visibility across facilities
Barcode Benefits:
- Cost-effective labeling for all product stages
- Easy integration with existing warehouse systems
- Supports batch and lot-level tracking
Combined Impact:
- End-to-end traceability from farm to retail
- Faster identification of affected products during recalls
- Improved accuracy in inventory and compliance reporting
Business and Safety Benefits of Strong Traceability
Implementing structured meat traceability systems delivers major advantages:
- Faster and more precise product recalls
- Reduced financial and reputational risk
- Stronger regulatory compliance (FSMA-aligned systems)
- Improved operational efficiency across supply chain partners
- Greater consumer trust through transparency
In today’s food ecosystem, traceability is not just a compliance requirement—it is a competitive advantage.
The Future of Meat Supply Chain Traceability
As regulations tighten and consumer expectations rise, the future of meat traceability is moving toward:
- Fully digitized CTE/KDE frameworks
- Real-time RFID-based tracking systems
- Centralized supply chain visibility platforms
- Automated compliance reporting
- Predictive analytics for risk prevention
Organizations that adopt these systems early will be better positioned for long-term resilience and operational efficiency.
Establishments where a CTE could take place include:
- Producer facilities (farms)
- Abattoirs
- Rendering plants
- Dead stock collection points
- Border posts
- Quarantine stations
- Warehouses
- Distribution centers
- Cold storage facilities
- Health Food Stores
- Food service operator restaurants (WOAH 2013)
It is also noted that there are difficulties in tracking animals and/or their parts after slaughter, especially at non-slaughter cutting houses such as retail meat markets or food-service cutting operations. There are several intermediate CTEs within this overarching meat supply chain that also have an impact on the traceability of the food, such as shipping, receiving, comingling, and disposal.
Specialized CTE-KDE framework
Poultry
CTEs
- Egg Delivery
- Eggs to Incubator
- Hatched Eggs
- Unhatched Eggs
- Shipment of Feed to Farm Chick
- Delivery to Farm Chick Placement
- Delivery of Feed to Farm
- Mature Broilers/Spent Hens
- Broiler Pickup
- Broiler Delivery
- Broiler Dead on Arrival (DOA)
- Broiler Harvest
- Minimally Processed Meat
- Shipping to Partner
- Receiving by Partner
- Nonmeat Ingredient
- Packaged Finished Product
- Shipping to Distributor
- Receiving by Distributor
- Shipping to Retailer or Food Service Operator
- Product Disposed as Unusable Waste
KDEs
- Who
- Owner of Breeder Farm
- Owner of Hatchery
- Owner of Broiler Farm
- Owner of Feed Mill
- Owner of Processing Plant
- Owner of Cold Storage
- Owner of Retail
- Owner of Food Service Operation
- Where
- Location of Hatchery
- Location of Broiler Farm
- Location of Feed Mill
- Location of Processing Plant
- Location of Cold Storage
- Location of Retail DC/Store
- Location of Food Service DC/Restaurant
- When
- Date
- Time
- What
- Eggs
- Chicks
- Feed
- Broilers/Spent Hens
- Nonmeat Ingredients
- Packaging
- Processed Product
- Identifiers
- Breeding stock
- Flock ID
- Product
- Batch Number/Lot Number
- Use-by Date
- Sell-by Date
- Activity Types
- Purchase Orders
- Delivery Identification
- Process Identification
- Cycle Identification
- Feed Order Number
- Ticket Number
- Work Order Number
- Carrier Name
- Trailer Number
Beef
- CTEs
- Feed
- Shipping to Processing Plant
- Receiving by Processing Plant
- Live Animals
- Minimally Processed Meat
- Nonmeat Ingredients
- Packaged Finished Product
- Shipping to Distributor
- Receiving by Distributor
- Shipping to Retailer/Food Service Operator
- Receiving by Retailer/Food Service Operator
- Retail POS
- Case Opened by Food Service Operator
- Product Disposal as Unusable Waste
KDEs
- Who
- Owner of Feed Lot
- Owner of Processing Plant
- Owner of Cold Storage
- Owner of Distributor
- Owner of Retailer Store
- Owner of Food Service Operation
- Where
- Location of Feed Lot
- Location of Processing Plant
- Location of Cold Storage
- Location of Distributor
- Location of Retail Distribution Center (DC)/Store
- Location of Food Service Distribution Center (DC)/Restaurant
- When
- Date
- Time
- What
- Cattle
- Feed
- Nonmeat Ingredients
- Packaging
- Processed Product
- Identifiers
- Animal Identification
- Animal Batch
- Product
- Batch Number/Lot Number
- Use-By Date
- Sell-By Date
- Activity Types
- Purchase Order
- BOL
- Feed Order
- Cycle Identification
- Ticket Number
- Work Order Number
- Carrier Name
- Trailer Number
Pork
- CTEs
- Feed
- Hogs
- Shipping to Processing Plant
- Receiving by Processing Plant
- Minimally Processed Meat
- Nonmeat Ingredients
- Packaged Finished Product
- Shipping to Distributor
- Receiving by Distributor
- Shipping to Retailer/Food Service Operator
- Receiving by Retailer/Food Service Operator
- Retail POS
- Case Opened by Food Service Operator
- Product Disposed as Unusable Waste
KDEs
- Who
- Owner of Finishing House
- Owner of Processing Plant
- Owner of Cold Storage
- Owner of Distributor
- Owner of Retailer Store
- Owner of Food Service Operation
- Where
- Location of Finishing house
- Location of Processing Plant
- Location of Cold Storage
- Location of Distributor
- Location of Retailer
- Location of Food Service Operator
- When
- Date
- Time
- What
- Hogs
- Feed
- Nonmeat Ingredients
- Packaging
- Processed Product
- Identifiers
- Product
- Batch Number/Lot Number
- Animal Identifier
- Use-By Date
- Sell-By Date
- Activity Types
- Purchase Order
- BOL
- Feed Order
- Cycle Identifier
- Ticket Identifier
- Work Order
- Production Date
- Trailer Number
- Carrier Name
For simplicity of implementation and to maintain a focus on the more critical, immediate gaps in tracing capability closer to the consumer, the CTEs/KDEs identified above are those of primary importance subsequent to the feeding lot. In addition to these CTEs/KDEs, some other information may be collected, and may include number of dead animals, and medication for all poultry, beef and pork operations, vaccination information for the beef and pork chains, the nursery, cow/calf operation, stocker operation, and sale barns.
Also read – The Best Practices in Food Traceability
CTEs or Critical Tracking Events are significant moments where the movement or the status of the product is changed, such as slaughtering, processing, shipping, and retail handling, which are all included in this.
KDEs or Key Data Elements are the points in the CTE that record the who, what, where, and when, and thus enable the tracing to be done accurately and the inquiries to be conducted faster.
They all have different CTEs, but the entire traceability process from production to retail is somewhat similar for all, and just the identifiers and processes change according to the species.
It is at slaughtering that tracking gets most difficult, especially in retail or food service cutting operation setups, where the product goes through many intermediate handling steps.
Lowry Solutions provides RFID, barcode, and data capture solutions that improve accuracy, automate tracking, and help meat processors and distributors meet traceability requirements.
A Horizons Talent Alumnus and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), the author brings a proven track record of success in senior shared-services leadership roles within large, complex multinational organizations, particularly in the manufacturing sector.
With deep experience at Senior Manager level, they have led strategic customer relationships by understanding core business imperatives, shaping service and solution propositions, and delivering measurable business outcomes.
