You're not alone if you hesitate when you reach into the supermarket meat case for steak to barbecue. Where did the beef come from? What was it fed? Was it treated humanely? How will it taste? Will it be tough or tender?

The beef industry hears your concern. Not just in Europe, where the spectre of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) shook the beef industry, but also in North America, governments and the beef industry are taking steps to ensure the safety and traceability of beef products. When the system is fully implemented it will be possible to trace that strip loin steak back to the animal and farm it came from, and to know how the animal was raised.

Consumer demand drives the beef industry. Not just individual consumers but vast empires like fast food chains are pushing the beef industry to meet their particular concerns. Increasingly, these large customers have established protocols for the care, handling and safety of the meat they use. Feedlots and processing plants are audited to ensure that these corporate protocols are being followed. The irony is that processing plants employ far stricter procedures when they slaughter and pack meat for corporate customers than they do for the general public.

The Beeftrak system levels the beef playing field. It allows livestock producers and others in the beef supply chain to respond unequivocally to consumer demands for assurances about food quality and safety. For the first time, it also offers consumers the chance to buy beef that meets their particular needs.

• all cattle are tagged with a unique Beeftrak number
  
• as they are treated (for example, vaccinated for bovine diseases), the treatments are recorded to their tag number in the Beeftrak database
  
• additional information such as what an animal is fed and whether the farmer has adopted certain protocols such as organic production or animal welfare can also be recorded
  
• at every stage, this unique tag stays with the animal and additional information is recorded
  
• ultimately, this tag information will be contained in bar code information on individual cuts of meat

Should a problem be discovered, it is easy to trace back through the supply chain to find out how, where and when problems such as E. coli contamination occurred to prevent further harm being done.

Find out more about Beeftrak by clicking the topics at right.