Devised by Gloucestershire farmers with widespread support from across the food industry, Happerley Passports empowers farmers to control provenance at the point of production and consumers to instantly unlock the whole provenance story of their food with one unique traceability code.

When www.happerley.co.uk goes live on 19 February (the 15 year anniversary of the Foot and Mouth Crisis) every UK primary food producer will be invited to create a free Producer Passport and profile and invite all intermediaries and retailers whom they trade with into a visible supply chain to create one network.

Producers are then able to generate a unique traceability code online for every food batch leaving their holding. The codes are validated through the food chain by participating intermediaries and retailers.
By validating the produce at every link in the food chain into one code accessed online or by QR scan at the point of sale, it will reduce food fraud, reconnect consumers with farmers and validate local and production claims and premiums. Those supporting the scheme believe it is vital to maintaining a sustainable and transparent UK farming industry, independent of retail and processor pressure.

Happerley co-founders, farmers Matthew Rymer and Clifford Freeman, conceived the concept to provide the full story of the provenance behind each cut of Pedigree Gloucester Beef they sold. After a piece on BBC Countryfile, they attracted support from fellow farmers, local butchers and consumers and were encouraged to broaden the scheme. Two years later, following a significant investment in software and a collaboration agreement with The University of Aberdeen, they and many others believe they are on course to transform trust and honesty in the food industry for the benefit of all.

In the briefing note the founders state that they were encouraged that Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss announced on 25 June last year that virtually all the data Defra holds —at least 8,000 sets — will be made freely available to the public. However, we still wait further news.

Professor Pete Edwards, Chair in Computer Science and lead on our collaboration with The University of Aberdeen explains:

“There are a plethora of assurance schemes out there, but until now no transparent universal traceability scheme connecting the consumer to the actual farm of origin. Provenance begins with the primary produce and it is right this should be producer led. Most of the data Happerley will gather is already held within DEFRA. Happerley simply turns this inside out for the benefit of everyone. Although a voluntary scheme, it is hoped that the Government will support it by opening up some of these datasets to Happerley.”

On 21 January this year The Great British Food Unit was announced by Defra ‘to turbo-charge UK food exports and support industry growth plans’ with a target to increase manufactured food exports to £6 billion by 2020.

It was launched at Weetabix who claimed they intend to source all their grain within 50 miles of their factory. We have discovered they have been sourcing this way since 2010. It aims to source grain close to each factory it has across the world.

But with some joined up thinking a drive for exporting UK manufactured food could help the UK primary producers. Defra could link support to the quantity of UK produced food in the manufactured product, using Happerley coding as a vehicle to provide an instant display of its UK primary producers to end users wherever in the world.

Instead they cite Mr Kipling as an example of an export success. It has been revealed since that Mr Kipling sources a considerable quantity of its eggs from abroad, a fact not made clear.