The background of the Norwegian national eTraceability project is a food scandal in 2006, where a child died and several children got sick from E-coli in processed meat. This incident showed that although it was possible to trace food, effort was needed to develop and implement efficient food-chain electronic traceability. The Norwegian Government was asked by the food-industry to take a leading and coordinating role in this effort. This resulted in the national Norwegian eTraceability project, where a majority of important participants in the food-chains in Norway, the Government and the Food Safety Authorities work together to develop and implement food-chain electronic traceability in Norway. The ambition of the project is to “Establish a national, electronic infrastructure for efficient exchange of information in the food chain in Norway within 2010 – Norway is “wold-class” on eTraceability”.

The project owners are the Ministries of Agriculture and Food, Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, and Health and Care Services. The Government will finance a central project secretariat to lead and coordinate the Norwegian eTraceability project until the end of 2010. The project secretariat works in close collaboration with participants from the whole food chain, as well as the Food Safety Authority and other authorities. Several pilot-projects have been started within/in connection to the Norwegian eTraceability project:

• eTraceability in the food-chain for beef (separate project group closely connected to the eTraceability national project secretariat)
• eTraceability in the food-chain for grains (separate project group closely connected to the eTraceability national project secretariat)
• eTraceability in the food-chain for fruit and vegetables (separate project group closely connected to the eTraceability national project secretariat)
• eTraceability in the food-chain for fish (domestic market, white fish, and salmon-farming, separate project group closely connected to the eTraceability national project secretariat)
• eTraceability in the food-chain for dairy products (separate project group closely connected to the eTraceability national project secretariat)
• Identification of master data for eTraceability, as well as informatics, architecture, and technology to store/share/quality-control/exchange data for eTraceability in the food-chain
• The value of implementing new technologies, such as RFID in the food chain. This is exemplified through a project to test RFID technology on ear-tags to identify sheep
• The value of implementing modern biotechnological tools, such as information from DNA/RNA in the food chain
• Identify the need for eTraceability-tools in the Food Safety- and other authorities

The project will run until the end of 2010. The Norwegian Government is playing an important role in this work through financing of the project secretariat, and in addition the Ministry of Agriculture and Food is leading the steering committee of the project. The pilots representing the major food value chains in Norway are organized in individual project groups that work in close collaboration with the national eTraceablity project secretariat. These pilots are partly financed by the industry partners, partly through the national eTraceability project, and partly through other financing sources (e.g. Innovation Norway). The remaining pilots are financed by the national eTraceability project.

By the end of 2010 eTraceability should be implemented in the pilot value chains. eTraceability will be implemented in the remaining food value chains after 2010 based on the experiences from the Norwegian national eTraceability project.