Where did my steak come from.

[gone up the hill]

Absolutely shocking .....and just what is the point of us wasting money on RT !!

Your cow was transported alive from Scotland to Cornwall....around 600 miles......and that is acceptable ! Not acceptable to me. I'm not RT assured but my cattle only go 35 miles to the slaughterhouse, which is hopefully the only time they leave my farm holding.


This area wants to transport sheep from Romney Marsh to a slaughter house in France.......around 100 miles.......and that is totally unacceptable ! WTF.


Keep digging @Old Boar .

Im afraid to say you are living in the past ref livestock movement miles.....

Cattle come from Kent/ Essex/ Cambridge etc etc to be sold at sedgemoor every week in the store/ fat markets, our cattle/ sheep go 260/300 miles to be killed, leave the farm at 4pm today, are dead by 8 am the next morning.

Thousands of breeding sheep come down to the SW from places like Cumbria etc each year, thousands of lambs come down from that area also to be killed in Dorset every week of the year.

And that's just a couple of examples.

 

[matthew]

The abattoirs in the SW have such a hold on barreners, bulls and overage stuff that our stock has to travel north to get the true price.
I don't like it either, but £200 per head is not to be ignored.
Gawd bless the berluddy .Irish.

 

[yellowbelly]

So, it's taken since Friday(??) to get to here. Hardly very impressive is it? Red Tractor assurance most definitely doesn't 'do what it says on the tin'. Traceable 'From Farm To Fork'....my @rse
Here are the board members........

http://assurance.redtractor.org.uk/who-we-are/afs-board
If I was you @Old Boar I'd write to the big cheese, Jim Moseley, and ask him to explain where it all went horribly wrong.
Please keep us informed.

 

[Old Boar]

The Tesco beef was slaughtered at UK8073 and cut at 5146. I too was shocked at how far the animal had travelled, Scotland to Cornwall, then across country to Huntingdon, then back to West Wales. How much profit would have disappeared in that trail?

The Aldi beef was the WN beef and they have yet to contact me, despite me ringing at least 4 times since I asked the question on the 19th July. I will ring tomorrow and tell them I need an answer by 4 o'clock or I will take it further.

Is it worth taking it to RT? I am sure they are keeping an eye on this thread, so I am sure I would get some waffle. I am inclined to take it straight to Trading Standards and the Advertising Authority.

Thoughts?

 

[RushesToo]

Tesco phoned today - they said they can only trace the animal back to the COUNTRY of origin. My bit of beef was from Scotland, slaughtered in Cornwall and cut in Huntingdon. I told them it had a RT stamp and therefore I should really be able to be told where it was born and raised. He said they only know the country. This is not acceptable. Ideas of where to go from here?

Nothing from Aldi....

so this:
https://www.redtractor.org.uk/what-we-do/what-does-the-logo-stand-for that says:
" We know where all Red Tractor food and drink comes from. Every stage of the journey is checked. Our systems ensure that all food can be traced right back to the original British farms."
Normally interpreted as from "farm to fork" Should actually read "from somewhere in a country in the UK to a packing shed" Not exactly snappy.
Hmmm re-assuring. . . .

I would suggest a blatant breach of advertising standards.

 

[yellowbelly]

Is it worth taking it to RT?

I think so - but only the TOP man and with just direct questions(to avoid waffle)
e.g. Is RT meat traceable from farm to fork?
Do you think you are taking farmers' money under false pretences? etc,etc.

Give him a chance to defend himself and then refer it to Trading Standards.

 

[Old Boar]

Yes, I can see the sense in that. Anyone like to PM me an email address? I have had a quick scout on tinternet but nothing coming up.

 

[RushesToo]

Yes, I can see the sense in that. Anyone like to PM me an email address? I have had a quick scout on tinternet but nothing coming up.

I have found a reference and the format seems to be [email protected].

 

[Old Boar]

Thanks.

 

[kiwi pom]

Tesco phoned today - they said they can only trace the animal back to the COUNTRY of origin. My bit of beef was from Scotland, slaughtered in Cornwall and cut in Huntingdon. I told them it had a RT stamp and therefore I should really be able to be told where it was born and raised. He said they only know the country. This is not acceptable. Ideas of where to go from here?

Nothing from Aldi....

Does the supermarket claim to be able to trace the product all the way back to the farm of origin?
You're questioning Red Tractor, what makes you think the supermarket has access to Red Tractors systems? Its Red Tractor that makes the traceability claim not Tesco, you need to talk to them.
No one on this thread as yet has any proof it cant be traced, just that the information hasn't been passed on, you're all just assuming you are correct.
I would say origin means where the animal was born, it does not mean it was transported from there to the slaughter house, although it might, it could have been sold as a weanling, sold as a store and ended up being finished next door to the slaughter house. The passport system would clear that up but again that's information Red Tractor would have not the supermarket.
As for transport, its just cheaper to do that than build warehouses and factories in dozens of different locations, if it wasn't people wouldn't do it.

 

[llamedos]

Retailers are unlikely to know where it comes from, they are customers of their wholesaler.
Viv Twiselton is the licensing Manager at RT 0207 630 3320

Good luck, you are covering ground I have covered.

 

[Henarar]

What is needed is for her/ him to go to the RT quango and ask them why they cant trace this meat back to farm ( and I mean go to the very top of the quango )

who would you suggest ?

 

[Henarar]

Im afraid to say you are living in the past ref livestock movement miles.....

Cattle come from Kent/ Essex/ Cambridge etc etc to be sold at sedgemoor every week in the store/ fat markets, our cattle/ sheep go 260/300 miles to be killed, leave the farm at 4pm today, are dead by 8 am the next morning.

Thousands of breeding sheep come down to the SW from places like Cumbria etc each year, thousands of lambs come down from that area also to be killed in Dorset every week of the year.

And that's just a couple of examples.

no wonder the meat is not so good and folk are going off eating it, combine that with the useless practice they have in place to hang it after its dead and you have the perfect recipe for how to f**k up a good product AFTER it leaves the farm gate FFS

 

[Henarar]

our lamb goes five miles to be killed in a place where they know how to deal with it properly before and after it is killed, that is why it is so much better than any other lamb that I or a lot of other people have had before

 

[Steevo]

Saw this today. These pigs covered some miles to get to Belgium and back.....But it's ok as the RSPCA have put their stamp on it!

I admit they were probably dead before they left UK but it shows the miles some of our food racks up.

 

[llamedos]

Saw this today. These pigs covered some miles to get to Belgium and back.....But it's ok as the RSPCA have put their stamp on it!

I admit they were probably dead before they left UK but it shows the miles some of our food racks up.

Least is isnt Foie Gras

 

[Wooly]

Checking on various websites :

From the RED TRACTOR webpage -
We know where all Red Tractor food and drink comes from.
Every stage of the journey is checked. Our systems ensure that all food can be traced right back to the original British farms.

From the GOVERNMENT website -
Red Tractor products
When shopping for food, the Red Tractor logo seeks to provide assurance that the food has been checked every step of the way - from farm to pack - and can be traced back to the farm source.

And from the NFU website --
“The Red Tractor Assurance scheme means that shoppers can trace their food from farm to fork.

“The Red Tractor logo is a world leading standard for quality, food safety, traceability, animal welfare and a cared for environment. I am delighted that the NFU is working together with Assured Food Standards to promote the Red Tractor.”


From the experience of @Old Boar, I'm beginning not to believe all the marketing of this fantastic scheme !!

 

[Steevo]

Least is isnt Foie Gras

50:50 that it contains horse though!

 

[joe soapy]

I am told the butty wagon on the A683 just off Junc 34 M6 on the Quernmoor side is excellent

Is that the one reputed to provide "extras " with a fry up

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I was wondering if it may be something like that. So really the supermarket probably can't trace it back.
Perhaps the other way to go is contact Red tractor (if you can do such a thing) a few weeks after sending a beast to the works and get them to tell you which supermarket it ended up in. Make them prove their system works.

The British Cattle tracing system (does Northern Ireland or Scotland use it?) Is a database run from Workington in Cumbria. Every bovine is legally required to be tagged within 21 days of birth (7 days for dairy calves) and that tag registered on the system within a further 7 days. A "cattle passport" is then issued which has to accompany the animal from holding to holding until it dies. Once it dies the holding it dies on (abbatoirs are "holdings" too) notifies BCMS, the operator of the database, of the death and returns the physical passport. Whether AFS "Red Tractor" have direct access to that database I have no idea.

It's a good system even though some cattle farmers hate it and a few try to abuse/avoid it (see other threads on here where farms falsify cattle ages etc and get fined).

It SHOULD be an excellent basis from which abattoir to plate traceability can draw.