Food Security, monitoring and digitalization

Food safety can be defined as all measures taken to prevent possible physical, chemical, biological and all kinds of harmful things that may occur in food. In recent years, with the increase in consumer awareness of food safety and the efforts to harmonize with the European Union (EU), efforts to comply with food safety legislation and food safety standards have accelerated. Despite significant progress, it is still not possible to say that food safety can be ensured in red meat and dairy industry in Turkey. In recent years, efforts to control animal diseases, especially foot and mouth disease, have gained momentum in Turkey, but targeted success in this regard has not been achieved. One of the factors that play an important role in the transmission of diseases is ongoing uncontrolled import of live animals and meat from abroad.

In our country and also TR71 region, a reliable recording, monitoring and identification system has not been established for livestock sector and also red meat and dairy industry. In addition, the lack of record keeping in livestock enterprises also prevents traceability in animal production. In order to ensure traceability in livestock sector, producers should be able to record all issues related to livestock, such as the content of meat and milk, treatments and medicines applied to animals, animal feeds, and animal diseases through digital infrastructure. In this context, digital tools should be disseminated in meat and milk production, producers and enterprises should be made aware of record keeping, monitoring and digitalization, and controls should be increased by relevant public institutions in the region.

In dairy industry, main factors that pose a threat to human health are; ratio of fat, water and bacteria in milk, errors in the pasteurization process, consumption of raw milk and dairy products, heat-resistant pathogen contamination of milk and its products, and chemical contamination of milk. These factors are also added to the negative effects of animal-borne diseases on milk at farms. In this case, the inadequacy of quality practices between the farm, milk collection center and milk processing plays the leading role in supply chain of food sector in the reigon.

The agriculture and food sector is among leading sectors in TR71 region. Aksaray and Niğde provinces in the region are concentrated in milk and dairy product production, while Kırşehir province is concentrated in red meat production. 26.05% of the manufacturing enterprises in the region operate in the food manufacturing sector. The share of this sector in the regional export rate is 8.37%. The technology level of the food supply, procurement and production infrastructure of the TR71 region is very low compared to other regions. In this context, regular inspections and controls for food safety, the establishment of an effective recording, monitoring and identification system in the meat and milk sector and the expansion of digitalization are emerging as a necessity.

In order to transform food sector in the region into a mature cluster, it is necessary to create regional transformative innovation policies and implement them together with relevant stakeholders in order to increase digitalization and efficiency in agricultural and food sector of TR71 region, to establish sustainable innovative systems and spread digital tools in milk and meat production.