Traceability regularly crops up as a factor in food safety simply because there is an escalating rise in the number of public health cases associated with consumption of food every year. One key way to understand what the causes are is to check throughout the supply chain what has happened to the food up to the point it was consumed and what corrective actions can be implemented.
Food safety is a corner stone policy in both the European Union and the USA and generally throughout much of the world. The term ‘traceability’ means according to the UK Government “the ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food producing animal or substance intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages or production, processing and distribution”. It really is all encompassing and is generally meant to cover any material that is consumed by us. For a manufacturer, it applies to any food or ingredient which enters their plant or leaves it and it is essential in safety or regulatory law to know where foods have originated from or who they are supplied to.
Traceability by a manufacturer is also a key aspect in preparing a defence if something goes literally wrong with a food. To plan for an emergency situation, tracing a food or its ingredients allows for visibility into the manufacturer’s supply chain and this helps in the preparation of a valid defence. Every manufacturer needs to demonstrate ‘due diligence’ so that it helps protect them from litigation.
The manufacturer should also have a traceability process in place for their own records and as part of their HACCP plan (Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Plan) and for quality management and control. When it is extended to ingredients entering a manufacturing plant, it allows the recipient to have confidence in there suppliers if they too have a traceability policy in place and can identify for themselves the quality of the food being delivered.
Having a traceability policy in place also means that establishing the root cause of a problem is achieved much quicker than if it is missing and the foodstuffs can actually be recalled before any more of it can do damage. It wasn’t always possible if a traceability plan was not in place. When such problems are identified then the manufacturer is in a position to act upon them more rapidly tan usual. It also means possible sources of contamination are identified and gives the manufacturer the opportunity to remove suppliers from the list if they supply contaminated food or removes the suspicion of them supplying contaminated food.
There is a wealth of guidance from national authorities such as the UK Government, the European Union, Food Standards Australia New Zealand and from the Global Food Traceability Center hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) on the subject. It is worth consulting these for objective and explicit information about what traceability means and how it can be implemented.
Various documents can be consulted online:-
Guidance Notes for Food Business Operators on Food Safety, Traceability, Product Withdrawal and Recall. A guide to compliance with Articles 14, 16, 18 and 19 of General Food law Regulation (EC) 178/2002 which is issued by the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom.
Food Traceability – Europa.eu factsheet (June 2007)
Food Traceability. Issues by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Updated in September 2012
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