Traceability, FOOD TRACEABILITY

• Objectives of  traceability

  
  Traceability is the ability to trace, follow and identify uniquely product units (batch, lot, consignment, etc.) through a defined supply chain or production operation. Traceability systems provide information on the history of a product and / or locate the product in the supply chain.

• Traceability is a legal requirement for food businesses, which should be established at all stages of production, processing and distribution. It is essential in situations where a product withdrawal or recall is required.

• Traceability does not make food safe or ensure product quality; it is a management tool. Traceability can, however, help towards assuring food safety or quality by enabling an FBO to identify product units and put in place checks that safety or quality criteria have been met. It also enables necessary action to be taken if food is found or suspected to be non-conforming.

• Traceability identifies the path from which a product has originated to whom it has been supplied, and consists of an inter-linking chain of records between steps in a process operation and/or between different stages in a food supply chain.

• Most operations within the food supply chain cannot readily create traceability throughout the whole food supply chain, but each has a role to play in collecting and storing information about the raw materials, products and processes under their control.

• Traceability is a widely used term and is one of those broad concepts, like quality, for which there are many different applications. There is no universally acceptable definition or system of traceability. It depends on many factors, not least the nature of the products and production operation to which traceability is applied. Traceability may also have different objectives, such as food safety, product identity and reliability of information provided.

• Although legal requirements, international standards and private voluntary standards require traceability in one form or another none is prescriptive in the way traceability is to be achieved. This is not surprising as there are many options available and it is up to the business to define the scope of a traceability system and how it is to be achieved based on the nature of the product and production operation including size of the business.

Benefits of traceability

Traceability systems should include the procedures for identifying a product and establishing its production history, source and destination. Traceability gives greater clarity to the food supply chain from farm to market and the assurance of product identity.

Pre-requisites of traceability

Food safety and traceability in the food supply chain depends on:

• Legislation which lays down the minimum traceability requirements.
• Official controls to check food business compliance with legislation.
• Food businesses taking measures and adopting practices to achieve an appropriate system of traceability.

Aims of implementing traceability

For the competent authorities the implementation and use of robust and effective traceability systems in the food chain can contribute to a number of aims, for example:

• Promoting food safety by enabling a better targeted and more rapid response to food incidents.
• Improving food law enforcement by enabling better access to information about food products and their constituents.
• Providing information to support labelling claims and aid informed choices by consumers.
• Improving the effectiveness of the action taken in response to surveys of food.
• To identify the responsible organisations in the food and feed chain.

Benefits of traceability

There are also clear benefits for industry to be gained from such systems, for example:

• To support food safety and/or quality objectives, and meet customer specification.
• To fulfil and local, regional, or international regulations or standards, as applicable.
• To communicate information to relevant stakeholders and consumers through the provision of reliable information to regulators, customers and consumers.
• Improved consumer protection through better targeted and more rapid recalls and/or withdrawals.
• Greater efficiency within businesses, with more information to assist in process control and management, e.g. in stock control and quality control.
• To support authenticity claims about products, e.g. to authenticate origin and production claims.
• Deterrence of fraud.

Traceability and international standards

In a food business operation traceability may be managed as part of a formal business management system, such as the management system attributes specified in standards set by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). These standards, which are good practice standards and not legally enforceable, include provisions in relation to product identity and traceability.

Managing traceability

In a food business operation traceability may be managed as part of a formal business management system, for example, the international series of standards for Quality System Management (the ISO 9000 series) and food safety (the ISO 22000 series).

ISO 9001: 2008 specifies management system attributes including the production and service provisions requirements for identification and traceability of product. This states that, where appropriate, the organisation shall identify product by suitable means throughout product realisation and, where traceability is a requirement, the organisation shall control the unique identification of the product and maintain records.

ISO 22000

Traceability is also a constituent part of ISO 22000 standard (food safety management systems – requirements for an organisation in the food chain). ISO 22000: 2005 specifies requirements for a food safety management system where an organisation in the food chain needs to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards in order to ensure food is safe at the time of human consumption.

There is a specific requirement for traceability in the ISO 22000 standard. This covers the establishment and application of a traceability system that enables the identification of product lots and their relation to batches of raw materials, processing and delivery records. This implies a combination of the one down/one up approach (external traceability) plus process internal traceability.

These standards suggest that in developing a traceability system consideration should be given to:

• The activities that might impact on system complexity such as types and number of raw materials re-use of product, batch versus continuous production and aggregation.
• The extent of the traceability system to identify any potentially unsafe products that may need to be withdrawn or recalled.

Traceability and private voluntary standards

In a food business operation traceability may be managed as part of a food safety management system, for example the private voluntary standards set by trade bodies, retailers and other organisations in the food and feed supply chain. Most, if not all, have provisions in relation to product identity and/or traceability in one form or another. These standards are good practice standards and are not legally enforceable. Some examples of Private Voluntary Standards are as follows – these are here as examples only and this course does not necessarily recommend the adoption of them over the many others available.

British Retail Consortium

In the food sector, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Food, for example, requires that the company shall be able to trace all raw material production lots from their supplier through all stages of processing and despatch to their customer and visa versa.

International Featured Standards

Similarly the Germany based International Featured Standards (IFS) standard for auditing quality and food safety of food products requires that a traceability system shall be in place which enables the identification of product lots and their relation to batches of raw materials. The traceability system shall incorporate all relevant receiving, processing and distribution records. Traceability shall be ensured and documented until delivery to the customer.

Global Food Safety Initiative

On an international basis, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarks food standards against food safety criteria including the BRC and IFS standards. In respect of traceability the GFSI guidance states that the standard shall ensure:

• identification of outsourced product, ingredient or service;
• complete records of batches in process or final product and packaging throughout the production process; and
• record of purchaser and delivery destination for all products supplied.

Agricultural Industries Confederation

In the feed sector the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) Feed Materials Assurance Scheme requires that participants must be able to demonstrate traceability for the raw materials utilised to produce feed materials, and to demonstrate traceability for all feed ingredients supplied. The latter requires the ability to produce a traceability trail for each consignment of feed ingredients showing the period in which they were produced and the consignment(s) of raw materials form which they were produced.

Importance of private voluntary standards

The relevance of these private voluntary standards is they specify good practice as identified by the relevant sector of industry. They help businesses that adopt the specified standard meet legal requirements (the one down/one up approach) and the expectations of the supply chain for internal traceability. That is to follow the movement of food and feed products through a specified stage the supply chain from receipt of supplied materials through processing to distribution of the product.

Components of traceability

Traceability systems have three basic components: supplier (one step back) traceability, process (internal) traceability, and customer (one step forward) traceability. Linked to these basic components of traceability are efficient record keeping and the ability to provide relevant information on demand.

Categories of information

There are two categories of information relating to traceability.

• Internal traceability, which relates to the production history within an operation.
• External traceability, which relates to product information that an operation receives from suppliers (the preceding point in the supply chain) or provides to customers (the next point in the food chain).

Traceability information that is external and internal to a food business operation is given in the attached diagram.

Traceability basics

Taking into account all that is required by legislation and industry standards the basis of a traceability system in the food supply chain is:

• Identify and trace what is received from suppliers, which enables the source of materials used to be identified (one step down external traceability).
• Identify and trace what is made, from what, when and how, which enables the identity of raw materials and process or handling records for each lot (internal process traceability).
• Identify and trace the customer delivery destination of supplied product, which enables to whom product has been supplied to be identified (one step up external traceability).

This is in turn, linked to efficient and appropriate record keeping.

Record keeping

The food supply chain is a series of separate operations in sequence (farm to market), each linked by the products supplied to them from a preceding operation (the one step back or down) and the products they supply to the next operation (the one step or forward).

Each operator in the chain records information which links the separate operations with their own traceability system. Each operator is responsible only for the stage of the chain under their control. By linking each stage in the chain whole chain traceability can be achieved.