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Glossary · Manufacturing and logistics

Food traceability

Food traceability is the ability to follow a food through every stage of production, processing and distribution: knowing where each lot came from and whom it was delivered to.

Food traceability: the details

In the European Union it has been mandatory since 2005 under Regulation (EC) 178/2002. The minimum requirement is summed up as “one step back, one step forward”: every business must be able to identify its immediate suppliers and customers. In practice, customers and quality certifications also ask for internal traceability: which raw materials and processes are behind each lot that ships.

The real test is a recall. If a problem appears, you have to find within hours which lots are affected and where they are, and the finer the record, the less product gets pulled. With paper and spreadsheets that takes days; with the lot captured at every step—intake, processing, packing, shipping—it’s a query.

Food traceability in a project

For agricultural cooperatives and food processors we build the lot chain from the field or receiving dock to the pallet, with GS1 labels scanned at each step and a mock recall as the acceptance test.

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Where we apply it

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Glossary

Related terms

See the whole glossary
  • GS1-128Manufacturing and logistics
  • EDIElectronic data interchange
  • MESManufacturing Execution System

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