**2. Traceability in regulation (EC) 178/2002**

Since 1 January 2005, a rule has required that EU countries implement labelling and identification procedures for products sold by farmers, producers and first importers to the EU to enable and facilitate their traceability when they are put on the market. The main purpose is to be able to initiate a withdrawal and/or recall procedure for products in the event of a food crisis. The quality of traceability will enable targeted and precise withdrawals. It will also limit the extent of recalls and ensure the removal of holds on products that are not involved.

The law (EC Regulation No. 178/2002) defines traceability as: "The ability to reconstruct and follow a food, feed, a food-producing animal or substance intended to be, or to join a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution" (Article 3, paragraph 15).

Many use the terms tracking and traceability synonymously. In reality, these two terms identify two inverse processes:


Traceability does not refer to the production of a generic good. It makes each unit of production physically identifiable, managing production processes that are determined by "lots", and manage traceability means identifying each group of products and following the path.

It is necessary to record information relating to inputs (products and companies), processing (product lots, which lots and what end products) and outflows (products/companies /clients). The key is to define the composition of a set of products that have undergone the same process of transformation.

Moreover, the amount of information that identifies a batch may vary and of course the complexity of the whole system increases with what information the company chooses to include in the identification of a lot.

Internal traceability, then, helps to express the internal procedures of each company to trace the origin of materials used.

The label is the instrument through which information is transferred to consumers. It's easy to understand why this essential requirement is effective.

Finally, the information given in the production lot should be able to trace all the links along the chain, back to the first producer and/or supplier of the product or substance to whom it belongs. Traceability chain is an inter-company process, resulting from internal processes of every operator in the industry. These systems should be linked by efficient information systems. It is not governed by a single person in the chain, the relations between the operators allow the tracing of the chain.
