Traceability, Food Safety Glossary

The ability to trace food one step back to its supplier and one step forward to its customer. Traceability is the ability to follow the movement of food through the supply chain. In practice it usually means being able to trace food one step back to the supplier it came from, and one step forward to the business or customer it was supplied to. This is essential for locating and removing unsafe food quickly. Traceability relies on record keeping. Records of what was received, from whom, and what was supplied to whom, allow a business and its regulators to narrow down affected products during a food recall or a foodborne illness investigation, rather than removing far more food than necessary. Standard 3.2.2 requires food businesses to be able to identify the supplier of food they receive. For most food service businesses, this means keeping invoices, delivery dockets and supplier details so the source of any ingredient can be established. Wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers also need to trace forward to their customers. Good batch and lot coding, combined with sales and delivery records, means that if a supplier issues a recall, the business can quickly identify exactly which stock and which customers are affected. When a supplier recalls a batch of frozen berries, a Hobart cafe uses its delivery dockets to confirm it received the affected batch, checks its freezer, removes the stock and, because it kept clear records, resolves the issue within an hour rather than discarding all its frozen fruit.