Traceability
We strongly believe in the importance of traceable meat. And we’re proud to provide detailed information on every farm and farmer we work with.
Revel Meat Co. has always worked with a select group of local ranchers to ensure that every product we process is traceable and meets our standards for environmental sustainability and animal welfare.
Our new expanded traceability program expands on that vision by offering customers even more detailed information on every piece of meat they purchase—down to the individual animal, where it lived, what it ate, and how far it traveled to get to us.
Our USDA Local Food Promotion Grant & Traceability Program
In 2021, we were awarded a USDA Local Food Promotion Grant to implement an expanded traceability program at our butcher shop and processing facility. This program utilizes RFID tags and other technologies to keep digitized records of every animal we process—from the moment it’s born all the way through to processing and butchering.
The primary goal of this program is to help small and midsize ranchers compete in a saturated market while increasing access to traceable meat in Portland and beyond. Our grant allows us to work with a dozen ranchers and offer them traceability tools and technology free-of-charge. These farmers will serve as pilots for the program to help us hopefully expand it far beyond our own community.
RFID Technology
We’ve given participating ranchers RFID ear tags and scanners so they can easily track their animals throughout their lives—including how they were born, what they ate, and how they lived or moved around the pasture. By the time the animals arrive at our facility, there is full traceability connecting the animal to the farmer and their practices.
ERP Management Systems
We are also building an extensive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system—a kind of integrated business management suite—to track traceability information from our ranchers along with our own humane handling protocols and other important information. This ensures that every step of the process is carefully traced and recorded.
QR Codes on Packaging
All of this information will be available to customers and easily accessible via QR codes on Revel Meat Co. packages. Every product we process will be labeled with the farm’s name and a QR code linking to their website and farming practices.
Our entire program—including QR codes on Revel Meat Co packaging—will be live by 2024!
The benefits of traceable meat
When meat is traceable, customers have the information to make purchasing decisions that feel good for them and their families. Meat traceability also helps small-scale farmers, processors and retailers differentiate themselves and gain visibility in the marketplace—which supports the overall integrity and diversity of our regional food systems.