Meat Provenancing: Pork

The export of pork products in a highly competitive global food market is essential to the Australian Pork Industry, but does present certain risks which must be effectively managed. The detection of a contaminant or a residue in a pork product labelled as Australian will result in a precautionary shutdown of the export market. To facilitate the rapid re-entry of the industry to this export market, it was established that a scientific tool was required to rapidly validate the traceability of Australian pork.

A validation tool for the existing pig pass traceability system was developed through the industry managed research project called Physi-trace.



The developed validation tool uses trace element and stable isotope profiles to link sources of pork meat. These sources of pork meat are essentially groups of pigs which have been grown together in a particular geographical location at a particular time.

The scientific tool (Physi-trace) has the following capabilities;

  • Pork meat can be linked to its respective production batch

  • The general geographical location of an Australian pork sample can be determined

  • Non-Australian pork can be identified

  • Some application to Pork Offal (ongoing research)

  • Can trace pork back through the supply chain (e.g. from supermarket shelf to producer)


The validation tool in combination with the existing Pig Pass system ensures rapid traceability of Australian product. This ensures the fast identification of contaminated material and locations or alternatively the presence of falsely labelled or substituted product and rapid re-entry of unaffected producers to the market. The developed system assists the whole pork industry proactively manage its export market access risks.

For more information on the Australian Pork Industry please visit: www.australianpork.com.au