Product traceability in the food industry: safety, control and compliance
In the food industry, product safety depends on a company's ability to accurately track raw materials, batches, production processes, inventory and deliveries. As volumes increase and workflows become more complex, managing information across separate files or systems can make it more difficult to quickly identify a product's journey and determine the causes of a potential non-conformity.
Digital traceability connects the data generated throughout the operational flow and makes it possible to track a product from raw material to customer. For food manufacturers, this level of control supports product safety, more effective batch management and faster intervention when deviations or non-conformities occur.
A well-structured system should support traceability in both directions: from raw materials to the resulting products and customers, and from finished products back to the original batches and suppliers.
What does digital traceability mean in the food industry?
Traceability involves more than recording a batch number on goods receipt or delivery documents. To accurately reconstruct a product’s history, a company needs to connect information from purchasing, production, warehousing and distribution. A well-structured traceability system should support:
- Raw material traceability, by identifying suppliers, batches and quantities used in production
- Production process traceability, by linking recipes, consumption, operations and the resulting production batches
- Finished product management, by identifying inventory, deliveries and customers associated with each batch
In this context, production traceability maintains the link between the raw materials used, the operations performed and the batches of finished products obtained. The company can identify which raw materials were consumed, in what quantities and in which finished product batches they were used.
What information should be tracked throughout the operational flow?
The level of detail varies depending on the type of products and the company’s processes. However, effective traceability requires data generated across all key stages of the operation to be connected. Relevant information includes:
- Raw material data, including supplier, batch, quantity received, origin and expiry date
- Production information, such as the recipe used, released production orders, operations performed, batches and quantities consumed
- Consumption and production results, including planned quantities and the values actually recorded in production
- Finished product data, including batch, production date, quantity produced, expiry date and quality information
- Warehouse product movements, including locations, transfers, picking operations and stock rotation rules
- Delivery information, allowing the company to identify the orders, quantities, batches and customers that received the products
When this data is recorded and connected digitally, a product’s history can be reconstructed more easily, without manually consolidating information from documents, files and different applications.
How does traceability support food safety?
The importance of traceability becomes particularly clear when a quality issue or non-conformity arises that could affect product safety. In such situations, the company needs to quickly determine the extent of the issue and identify the exact batches involved. Digital traceability enables the company to:
- Quickly identify affected batches by accessing the history of raw materials, consumption and production operations
- Locate products throughout the flow, whether they are in production, in the warehouse, in transit or have already been delivered
- Isolate non-conforming products, limiting intervention to the batches and quantities that are actually affected
- Identify affected customers by linking delivered batches to the relevant orders and recipients
- Document the investigation using the data required to analyse causes and establish corrective measures
The better the information is connected, the faster the company can respond and limit the operational, financial and commercial impact of a non-conformity.
How does traceability support IFS Food and BRCGS Food Safety requirements?
International food safety standards place strong emphasis on a company’s ability to demonstrate the journey of its products and maintain control over the information associated with them.
IFS Food v8 includes requirements for a documented traceability system that is implemented and periodically verified. The company must be able to trace finished products back to the raw materials used and identify the destination of delivered batches. The standard also requires periodic testing of the traceability system and establishes a maximum period of four hours for retrieving complete information during a traceability exercise, unless customer requirements specify a shorter timeframe.
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 also includes requirements related to product identification, raw material traceability, batch control and verification of the traceability system throughout production and distribution.
In practice, the company should be able to demonstrate the link between:
- Raw materials and their suppliers, together with the batches and information recorded at goods receipt
- Raw materials and production processes, by identifying recipes, consumption and operations performed
- Production batches and finished products, by maintaining genealogy and information related to production results
- Finished products and available inventory, by tracking locations, expiry dates and stock movements
- Delivered batches and the customers that received them, enabling the company to quickly identify product destinations during an investigation
A software system does not grant or guarantee IFS or BRCGS certification. It can, however, support internal processes, data quality and rapid access to the information required for inspections, audits and traceability exercises.
How is a non-conformity or batch recall managed?
One of the most relevant scenarios is a non-conformity associated with a specific batch of raw material. To quickly assess its impact, the company needs to reconstruct the entire journey of that batch. More specifically, it should be able to identify:
- The origin of the raw material, including the supplier, receipt date and documents associated with the batch
- The quantity received and consumed, together with the remaining stock available at the time of the investigation
- The production orders involved, showing where and in which processes the batch was used
- The resulting finished products, including the batches and quantities produced after processing
- The location of the products, to determine which quantities are still in production or in the warehouse and which have already been delivered
- The customers that received the products, by linking batches to orders and delivery documents
In an integrated digital system, these links are maintained as operations take place. Investigating a non-conformity therefore becomes less dependent on manually searching for and reconciling information across multiple departments.
Why should production, inventory and deliveries be connected?
Traceability becomes difficult to manage when each stage of the process is handled separately. A batch may be received in one application, consumed in production through another system and delivered based on information managed elsewhere. In this case, reconstructing the product’s journey requires the manual correlation of data that should already be connected.
Within an integrated software ecosystem, each system can cover a distinct area of the business while maintaining continuity of information:
- An ERP system manages commercial and inventory management data, from suppliers and purchasing to master data, batches and documents
- The MES solution monitors production execution, including actual consumption, operations performed and the genealogy of resulting batches
- The WMS coordinates and records warehouse movements, from receiving and storage to picking and batch-based product delivery
- BI solutions consolidate operational information for the analysis of production, inventory, consumption and performance indicators
Through integration, data generated at one stage becomes available to subsequent processes, giving management a consistent view of the entire operational flow.
Benefits of digital traceability beyond compliance
Digital traceability is relevant not only for audits or certification. Properly connected data contributes to day-to-day operational control and can support better-informed decisions across production, quality and logistics. Key benefits include:
- Faster investigations when deviations occur, through direct access to batch histories and associated operations
- More precisely targeted recalls, by identifying the exact products and quantities that need to be isolated
- Fewer operational errors, by reducing the need to enter the same information repeatedly into different systems
- Better control over expiry dates, through batch tracking and the application of stock rotation rules
- More detailed analysis of consumption and losses, by comparing planned values with actual production results
- More efficient audit preparation, through quick access to the information required for inspections and process documentation
Traceability therefore becomes part of operational control and quality management, rather than simply a compliance requirement.
What should a software system for food traceability provide?
The selection of software solutions should start from the company’s processes and the level of detail required to track its products. In the food industry, functionality that maintains data continuity and provides rapid access to relevant information is particularly important. An appropriate system should support:
- Bidirectional batch traceability, allowing the company to reconstruct the journey between supplier, production and customer
- Integration of operational processes, so that production, warehousing, purchasing and sales work with connected data
- Batch and expiry date management, based on rules adapted to product characteristics and operational requirements
- Comparison between planned and actual consumption, helping identify deviations that occur during production
- A complete history of operations, required for investigations, internal checks and traceability exercises
- Rapid access to relevant information, without manual consolidation across systems, documents and departments
The quality of the data entered into the system is equally important. Digitalisation should be supported by clear rules for batch management, labelling, consumption recording and user responsibilities.
How Senior Software supports traceability in the food industry
Senior Software provides food industry companies with an ecosystem of integrated systems for managing commercial processes, production, inventory, warehousing and data analysis.
By integrating ERP, MES, WMS and SeniorVisualBI, information generated at different stages of the business can be connected within a unified operational flow. Companies can track received batches, raw materials used, recorded consumption, finished products obtained, warehouse movements and deliveries to customers. The software solutions can support:
- Tracking raw material batches, together with relevant supplier and goods receipt information
- Recording production and consumption, including operations, recipes and resulting production batches
- Managing inventory and expiry dates, according to the operational rules established by the company
- Controlling warehouse operations, from receiving and storage to picking and product delivery
- Analysing operational data, including production, consumption, losses, inventory and operational performance
By centralising this information, food manufacturers can gain greater control over their workflows and more effectively support processes related to safety, quality and compliance.
Greater control over production traceability
Discover how you can connect batches, consumption, production, inventory and deliveries within an integrated software ecosystem tailored to food industry processes.
Frequently asked questions about traceability in the food industry
What does traceability mean in the food industry?
Traceability is the ability to track raw materials and products throughout the relevant stages of the process, from supplier and receipt through production and storage to delivery to the customer.
What is the difference between traceability and product genealogy?
Traceability follows the product’s journey through the operational chain, while product genealogy describes the relationships created during production between raw materials, recorded consumption, production batches and the resulting finished products.
What information should be tracked for each batch?
Depending on the nature of the business, relevant information may include the supplier, origin, receipt date, expiry date, quantity, recipe, consumption, production operations, resulting batch, warehouse location and the customers to whom the batch was delivered.
How do ERP, MES and WMS contribute to traceability?
ERP manages commercial and inventory management data, MES monitors production execution and product genealogy, while WMS controls the physical movement of inventory and batches. When these systems are integrated, the product’s journey can be reconstructed more quickly and accurately.
Is a software system mandatory for IFS or BRCGS certification?
Certification requires effective traceability processes and mechanisms, but does not require the use of a specific software product. Digitalisation can support the collection, correlation and retrieval of the information required for inspections, audits and traceability exercises.