Traceability

“Traceability is the capacity to follow the movement of food through the specific stages of production, transformation and distribution”

A controlled and measured process.

Traceability is a tool capable of controlling the log, the physical situation and the processing of products or batch of products along the chain of supply at any given moment, through some specific tools.

Traceability is a fundamental and indispensable requirement for food company management that require documents oriented toward the identification of its products.

Traceability forms part of the internal control systems.

Traceability provides all the necessary and indispensable information regarding the product.

Traceability is a tool that provides information within and outside the company; facilitating management and control of different activities.

The traceability systems should keep in mind:

  • Product identification: The sole means whereby the product is identified should be as simple as possible.
  • Product data: Parts which comprise the product, raw materials, production or transformation processes, origin, destination and dates of both, controls whereto the product was submitted and results.
  • Relationship between the two prior points (ID and data of the product): This allows the monitoring of product movement, commercial information and internal processes.

Traceability provides advantages, both to companies as well as to consumers:

  • TO CONSUMERS: It gives confidence and guarantee since they have the certainty that the products have been properly controlled throughout the entire system of production, transformation and distribution.
  • TO THE COMPANIES: It provides internal information so as to facilitate control of processes and management, contributing to quality assurance and product certification. Likewise it facilitates locating and immobilising products, empowering the market by promoting commercial food safety, winning consumer confidence…