Dutch developing app to track supermarket meat from farm to fork

The Netherlands is working on developing a smartphone app that will allow consumers to scan supermarket products, see what ingredients are in them and what route those ingredients followed to end up in the supermarket. State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs wants to start making arrangements with supermarkets and food companies this month. The ultimate goal is that consumer can scan any product in a supermarket with their smartphones. The app must create clarity for consumers. The first product on the database will be pork. "We have to ensure that you can see of all products in the supermarket what ingredients they contain and where it comes from, we have to make the chain visible", Van Dam said to broadcaster NOS. The first product group on the app will be pork. According to Van Dam, pork is a good starting group because a lot of pork is produced in the Netherlands, but consumers do not know the farmers who produce it. "Here we can bring two worlds together nicely. On one hand, the farmer who wants more contact with his consumers, on the other hand, the consumer who wants to know more about what he eats.", the State Secretary Said. "With one push of a button, you will soon be able to see where the meat comes from and what happened to it, thus from the farm to the plate." According to Van Dam, creating such a comprehensive database takes a lot of time. But the goal is to have everything to do with pork ready by the end of the year. After that the database will be expanded step by step with other products.