Advantage Traceability Profile: Newmarket Meat Packers Ltd.

Simple solution offers traceability at a glance

At the end of a long day, Newmarket Meat Packers owner Nick D'Elia is still busy fielding orders for lamb, veal, sheep and goat. If demand is any measure of success, the company is thriving - five o'clock may have come and gone, but the phone hasn't stopped ringing with orders for their signature high-quality meats.


Since 1968, the family business has been serving chain stores, independent butcher shops and food service operators across Ontario. In the early days, they dealt in beef and pork, but today they focus strictly on the niche market for small stock. In fact, Newmarket Meat Packers is one of the biggest lamb processors in Canada. Each year, they slaughter approximately 100,000 lamb, sheep and goats, along with 12,000 veal.

Nick D'Elia, Owner Figure 1: Nick D'Elia, Owner, Newmarket Meat Packers Ltd.

Newmarket Meat Packers installed:

 

  • A manual colour-coded stamping system to label carcasses by their kill date
  • A standalone weigh/label/print station for labeling boxed product
  • Record-keeping changes to track all inputs through production to shipping

      "We do what we know, and we try to be the best at it," explains owner Nick D'Elia Jr. "We take a lot of pride in what we do here."

      That includes making sure the products they sell are safe and reliable. So when his HACCP coordinator suggested that participating in the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' Traceability Grant Program could improve their recall capabilities, D'Elia gave her the green light.

      The aim of the Traceability Grant Program was to help food growers and processors establish a facility-level traceability system to track vital information through each stage of production and distribution. Successful participants developed systems that met the program guidelines and the Can-Trace standards and, in turn, contributed to enhancing Canada's reputation as a producer of safe, high-quality food.

      Although many Traceability participants opt for systems that include barcodes, scanners and handheld computers, D'Elia was concerned that a number of his long-time employees would have trouble adopting such a high-tech approach. The cold, moist conditions within the plant also limited the potential use of technology.

      Instead, he worked with a consultant to develop an extremely simple, manual and very effective method to track incoming livestock through to the outgoing product - one that required only basic language skills, since many of Newmarket Meat Packers' employees aren't fluent in English.

      They settled on a system of five numerical stamps that are used to mark individual animal carcasses with the date they were slaughtered. Each stamp can be set to the appropriate Julian calendar date, and a different coloured food-grade stamp pad is used for each day of the week. A blue stamp means the animal was killed on Monday, for example, while the number reveals the calendar date.

      Using the kill date, D'Elia can trace each carcass back to the shipment on which it arrived and forward to the boxed product the company ships out.

      Since Newmarket Meat Packers implemented the system in January 2008, it has worked flawlessly, creating very little extra work for employees. "Because we kept it simple, it doesn't really get in the way," says D'Elia. "Everybody knows how to do their job and they do it."

      Initially a few retailers complained about the extra stamps on the carcass, but they quickly realized the system offered their customers traceability and greater recall capability.

      Should a problem ever arise, Newmarket Meat Packers can quickly narrow down the product that needs to be recalled to a single day's kill. And while the company has never yet had to perform a recall, its traceability system has created other significant benefits.

      One is inventory management. Thanks to the colour-coded stamps, a glance in the cooler quickly reveals which carcasses were killed yesterday and which were killed earlier in the week, making it easy to rotate stock. "For that alone, it was worth it," says D'Elia.

      With the new system, he can also identify company products after they've been shipped out. When a customer called up to complain about poor-quality lamb, for example, it took only a minute to prove the cut wasn't from Newmarket Meat Packers.

      The system cost very little to implement, requires minimal training and doesn't require employees to have strong English skills. Best of all, it is virtually foolproof. "You really can't make a mistake," says D'Elia. "It's almost impossible."
      Despite some initial reluctance, staff members have now bought into traceability and hold each other accountable to making sure it works successfully.

      D'Elia believes it's a system that any slaughterhouse could implement - and should.

      "In our business, it's a huge step toward food safety and it's going to become a must-have," he says. "It's the way of the future. You have to know what you're selling, where it's going and where it's coming from."

      Traceability brings benefits:

        By implementing a traceability system, Newmarket Meat Packers:

        • Improved inventory management
        • Gained the ability to identify their products in retails stores
        • Limited potential recalls to a single day's kill and production

        "It's the way of the future. You have to know what you're selling, where it's going and where it's coming from."

      - Nick D'Elia, Owner, Newmarket Meat Packers Ltd.

 

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Funding for the Food Safety Initiative Traceability Grant Program and Pilot Project was provided under the Agriculture Policy framework, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

For more information:
Toll Free: 1-877-424-1300
E-mail: advantage@ontario.ca