December 16, 2011 - An Alberta grocery chain is offering "fully DNA-traceable fresh premium Alberta pork" at its stores from Sturgeon Valley Pork, one of the first Canadian meat processors to employ DNA TraceBack from IdentiGEN Canada to trace its pork from the grocer's meat case back to the processing plant and farm of origin.
According to a press release, the product is now available at all 15 Freson Bros. grocery stores in Alberta.
"When we made the decision to source all of our pork from local Alberta farms, we wanted DNA traceability to give assurances to our customers," Doug Lovsin, V.P. of operations at Freson Bros., said in the release. "The DNA TraceBack seal is on the package for the consumer to see."
Sturgeon Valley Pork is a federally inspected processing plant that supplies fresh pork to grocers in Western Canada. In early 2009, the company began using DNA TraceBack, which has been in use in Europe since 2000. Under the system, DNA samples are taken from Sturgeon Valley hogs at the processing plant and then again at the retail store. Samples are sent to IdentiGEN's U.S. laboratory in Lawrence, Kan., where their DNA identifiers are used to verify product origins.
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