Animals + Humans = One health

Why traceability?

Traceability is not a new concept in the food sector. It has long been in place at the level of individual food businesses as part of their internal quality management system.

The major food crises at the end of the nineties (BSE and dioxin) clearly demonstrated that general food traceability was a pre-requisite for enabling food operators and public authorities to withdraw all the food products involved from the market, within a reasonable period of time.

It also became clear that effective traceability relies on a chain of information based on the data registered by each operator along the food chain. The crucial point, therefore, is to ensure that each operator has at least minimum traceability measures in place in order to avoid information gaps that would break the traceability chain.

Objectives of traceability

The main objective of traceability is to ensure food safety by enabling investigators to identify the exact origin of a food safety problem and the destinations to which all potentially contaminated food and feed products have been distributed.

Traceability can also help validate the information provided through labelling – for example confirming the product’s origin, production methods, etc. In all cases, the food safety objective comes first and need to be ensured.

How to ensure traceability

Traceability involves developing a registration system which is then implemented by each individual food and feed business all along the food chain. All operators need to systematically register at least a specified minimum set of data.

EU traceability measures

General traceability requirements are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 on the General Food Law, and there are additional traceability measures intended for specific food sectors.

General food safety requirements

On 1 January 2005, mandatory traceability requirements were introduced for all food and feed operators along the food chain and for all food and feed products. These requirements, aimed at ensuring food safety, are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 on the General Food Law, which serves as the framework for all EU food legislation.

The key traceability measure is that all feed and food businesses (step n) must, for each product they put on the EU market, register the following information:

• which operator supplied the raw material they used for making this product (step n-1); and
• to whom this product has been sold (step n+1).

The aim is to ensure that all food and feed businesses can identify their suppliers and their customers for any particular product and have systems and procedures in place that allow this information to be made available to the authorities.

The traceability system has to ensure traceability both upwards (from the supermarket to the farm) and downwards (from the farm to the final food product) as both are necessary to identify the origin of any food contamination and all potentially contaminated products.

The EU has published guidelines (available on the European Commission website (http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/foodlaw/guidance/index_en.htm) explaining that food and feed businesses must document the names and addresses of the supplier and customer in each case, as well as the nature of the product and its date of delivery.

Operators are also encouraged to keep information on the volume or quantity of a product, the batch number if there is one, and a more detailed description of the product, such as whether it is raw or processed.

Specific traceability requirements

In addition to the general requirements, sector-specific legislation applies to certain categories of food products (fruit and vegetables, beef, fish, honey, olive oil) so that consumers can identify their origin and authenticity.

There are also special traceability rules for genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which ensure that the GM content of a product can be traced. These rules require accurate labelling so that consumers can make an informed choice.