Pigs in central China get ID chips
Forty-five markets in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, have started to sell pork with ID chips, a spokesman with the food and drug administration said.
Pigs in southwest China are to begin having two identity chips fixed on their back legs detailing where they were butchered, examined and sold.
Two plastic rings containing the chips with information on where the pig was bred are fixed around the pig’s hinder limbs before it is sold to a slaughterhouse. Additional information is added to the chips as the pig gets slaughtered, inspected and sold to the end market.
Every seller is required to scan the chip of meat they purchase so that the system logs how much pork they have in stock. Meanwhile, their electronic scales are linked to the market system to keep track of how much pork they sell. “The amount of pork sold must not exceed that of pork purchased. That way we make sure no pork comes from illegal channels,” the spokesman said.
Each of the pork pigs sold in Chengdu will get ID chips by the end of next April, the spokesman added.
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