Representative Diana DeGette, a vocal advocate for the provision, said food makers initially resisted the concept but also wanted to avoid more expensive national recalls, which can occur when the specific source of an outbreak is not known.
“What many food producers are now realizing is the cost of upgrading to a traceability system is far less than the financial losses than they have to take if there is some kind of a recall,” said DeGette, a Colorado Democrat.
Dorf said the separate manufacturing process adds only a “marginal cost” to each bag, which is priced around US$3, similar to other brands of flour.
Several food companies in the US and Europe are also experimenting with using the Internet to connect customers with the growers. Buyers of Dole organic bananas in the US can now enter a bar code number on the banana’s sticker on the Doleorganic.com Web site and see photos and details about farms in Central and South America.
The company says it plans to expand the effort this year in Europe with a variety of other fruits.
Askinosie Chocolate, a specialty chocolate maker in Springfield, Missouri, also encourages its customers to enter codes on its Web site and pay a virtual visit to its cocoa bean farms in Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — and even read diary entries from farmers.
Supermarkets in the UK jumped on the traceability wagon early. The Waitrose supermarket chain lets buyers see information and videos on the farmers of potatoes, sugarloaf pineapples, papayas and coconuts. Customers at Tesco, one of Europe’s largest retailers, can trace the source of products like watercress.
The wheat farmers, for their part, appear to be enjoying meeting people at the other end of the food chain.
Fred Fleming is a “face behind your flour” on a Web site created by Stone-Buhr flour.
“We never knew where our wheat went to. The story always ended at the grain bin and the big commodity operations,” said Fleming, 59, who operates Lazy YJ Farms in Reardan, Washington., which is part of Find the Farmer.
“Now we can actually have a conversation with our city customers,” he said. “We can get back to the old days.”
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