A method is provided for tracking ground meat to the animal or animals from which the meat was harvested. The method includes obtaining animal portions that have information that is associated with the animal portions. The animal portions are loaded into a conduit or a vessel that includes a meat grinder. The amount of portions entering the conduit or the vessel are measured. The portions are ground into ground meat, and the amount of ground meat leaving the conduit is again measured. With the aid of a computer, when the amount of ground meat leaving the conduit corresponds to an amount of the portions that enter the conduit, the information that had been associated with the unground animal portions can also be associated with the ground meat.