Perspectives on traceability in food manufacture

Traceability in food manufacturing can range from in-house traceability in production plants to traceability in whole or part of the production chain from raw material to consumer, and descriptors of the product and its history can be few or many as decided. Well thought-out traceability systems are fundamental to achieving optimal benefits from quality control, production control and for fulfilling consumer demands etc. In order to facilitate the discussion of a traceability strategy in food industries this Viewpoint outlines the fundamental theoretical issues of traceability systems and presents a more practical discussion of its extent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.