Traceability in the agri-food supply chain
Before it reaches the market, a product may go through many steps and processes. Traceability (in Italian, tracciabilità) is the set of tools and procedures that, when properly managed, leave a record of everything that happens to the product: from the initial sourcing of raw materials to consumption, including processing, waste and movements.
Tracing back (rintracciabilità) is the reverse process: the ability to retrace the history of the product in our hands, starting from identification codes or numbers that carry information, usually known as lot numbers.
For farm produce and vegetables, traceability starts with the propagation material, the very first element cared for at the start of a new crop, whether a seed or a seedling. All propagation material must meet strict plant health rules, be healthy and show no evidence of GMO use. The chosen variety must also be listed in the official variety registers approved for the country where it is grown. The European Union has introduced a label that serves as a real identification document accompanying all seeds and plants that are moved and sold, known as the “plant passport”.
From then on, every operation carried out in the field is recorded in dedicated production records, the field logbooks, which report dates, fields, equipment, active substances, fertiliser applications, doses per hectare, machinery and weather conditions for each operation. This record ends with the harvest date, when the produce passes under the control of the packhouse.
At the packhouse, the harvested produce arriving from the field is first registered, identified and assigned a lot number. It is now an incoming raw material that may go through storage, trimming, grading, washing, packing into crates, loading and transport. Every single item that comes into contact with the fruit (crates, labels, trays and so on) is identified and managed with its own traceability, so that every component of the sales unit can be effectively traced back.
Correct traceability management is therefore essential to guarantee safety and hygiene at every stage of the process. Above all, it becomes a vital tool for the end customer, who can retrace the whole history of the product they have just bought, a product that now carries useful information that safeguards its safety.
