The Importance of Source Tracing in Production Systems

CHAPTER 1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION 1.1 DEFINITIONS The concepts of traceability and source tracing are often used in an indistinct way, even though they are consequential processes to be analysed together, while clearly taking into account the difference between them. The concept of traceability may be defined as the capability of a business to leave trails of the physical flows along the production and distribution process. Therefore the word does not only indicate the origin of the product, but also the record of all the steps that it has gone through, prior to reaching the shelf. Traceability is a technical and organizational innovation allowing the collection and management of data to administer the flow of information following the product’s physical flow. Whatever the business, supply-chain or firm, a more or less detailed “biography” of the product is so written according to the internal or external requirements to be fulfilled. Traceability may be applied at different levels corresponding to steps in the product’s life; the following distinctions are possible: INTERNAL TRACEABILITY: limited to within the firm, it permits components to be back-traced to the finished product and the capability to go back to all the production steps within the plant. EXTERNAL TRACEABILITY: it is aimed to identify the responsibilities of each of the actors in the supply-chain through simply recording the goods’ transfers. Responsibility in traceability is passed along with property transfer. No data exchanges are needed among the line’s actors. SUPPLY-CHAIN TRACEABILITY: it extends to all the production, transformation and distribution steps of the products and their components. It requires information sharing, it is an inter-firm process resulting from the combination of internal traceability processes of each operator along the line, combined with efficient communication flows. The supply-chain traceability cannot be administered by a single person; it is based upon the interaction among operators and therefore needs the cooperation from each individual contributing to the making of the product. SOURCE TRACING is the “possibility to reconstruct and trace the course of a foodstuff, feed, edible livestock or substance bound to enter or become a part of a food or feed through all the production, transformation and distribution steps”. ( EC Regulation N° 178/2002 ) In order to generate source tracing, the existence of an efficient traceabilty system is necessary in order to describe, through a number of supported trails, the steps met by the product from its harvesting. 2