ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short overview of identity preservation and traceability (IPT) history, primarily from a European Union (EU) and U.S. perspective, which includes a blending of eras of events and legislative initiatives. This section will not be completely uid or chronologically continuous. IPT history is a blending of reactions from food scares and pro-actions to help mitigate future food problems, by the private sector and governments. It also has taken on a perspective of credence attributes not associated with food safety, such as animal and labor welfare, food source origins, etc.* For the United States, the events of the World Trade Center bombings motivated the most recent wave of change. For Europeans food safety issues really came to the forefront with the discovery of bovine spongioform encephalopathy, (BSE, or mad cow disease) and have been ampli ed by concerns of genetically modi ed organisms (GMOs). The results have given rise to strict government regulations put forth by public demand, incited by government failures and activists. From this we can see how the U.S. and EU perspectives have started at near polar opposites but are working slowly and more closely together to help resolve important issues faced by differing cultures and governments. Although not a complete history of IPT, the goal of this chapter is to bring the reader up to speed as to why and how different paths are being taken toward answering the challenges regarding food issues. Woven through this chapter are the more important U.S. and EU legislations that affect IPT programs.
