Food traceability from field to plate

Several factors have led to intensified public scrutiny of the human food supply chain. Consumer concerns for food safety, animal welfare, and the environmental and ecological impact of food production and agro-processing have become increasingly important. These concerns have been exacerbated by several factors, including the trend towards further globalization of the food supply chain, the incidence of new and emerging safety hazards such as the human form of BSE (mad cow disease), and illnesses and deaths resulting from contamination of fresh and processed food. As a consequence of these growing concerns, consumers and other stakeholders in agroindustry now demand transparency in the way food is grown and handled throughout the supply chain, resulting in the emergence of 'traceability' as an important policy issue in food quality and safety. This paper provides a global overview of 'traceability' as a quality index in food trade, and discusses some of the drivers in both developed and developing countries. Policy changes are necessary specifically to incorporate traceability into existing food safety regulations and trade agreements. This will require further investments in information technology for data capture, storage and retrieval. Small-scale farmers in many developing regions moving towards market orientation face considerable technical and financial challenges in implementing appropriate food traceability systems in order to meet marketing compliance requirements.