DECRYPTION – The chain of custody is densest at the production stage.
With the industrialization of food, the food chain from producer to consumer has lengthened, sometimes counting nearly ten intermediaries. At each of these links, product safety is at stake: viruses, bacteria or parasites can slip in everywhere and take advantage of the slightest flaw. The players have therefore set up firewalls to try to avoid health risks.
From the start, breeders and veterinarians are responsible for controlling the animals. In the slaughterhouses, the Directorate General for Food and its services, placed under the responsibility of the prefects, check the animals on their arrival (traceability, absence of symptoms, etc.), then once the animal has been slaughtered, to ensure that carcass safety. This permanent public control system applies to equine, bovine or porcine slaughter animals, but not to poultry. Vegetable products (fruits and vegetables, cereals) do not escape the controls, which focus in particular on their…