Traceability – How Do You Do It?

In a couple of months EU Food Law - Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 comes into effect. Art. 18 of 178/2002 states that:

'The traceability of food, feed, food-producing animals, and any other substance intended to be, or expected to be, incorporated into a food or feed shall be established at all stages of production, processing and distribution'.

If you're traceability system isn't up to scratch you had better get moving if you're going to be prepared come January 2005.

OK so it will only become law in the EU, but operating a robust traceability system makes sense doesn't it? In addition to supporting the food safety system a good traceability system allows you to deal with customer complaints quickly and effectively and because batches or parts of batches can be identified it can reduce the size and cost of recalls and claims.

Members of these forums represent a diverse range of industries and processes and I thought it might be interesting if we shared some of our traceability systems. I'm sure we'll pick up tips from one another in the process.

OK I'll go first.

Background information:

- Manufactured product - Pre cut heat seal lids

- Raw materials: Reels of aluminium foil, plastic, paper with a heat seal coating (lacquer, laminate, co-extruded). UV Inks and Varnishes.

- Manufacturing process: UV Flexographic printing of reels and die punching of lids.

- Direct customers: Dairy, Food & Drink and Pharmaceutical.

- End products: Anything that requires a tamper evident heat seal lid e.g. yoghurt.

Traceability system:

The most important elements of the traceability system are the Works Order document, retained quality samples and records and the following three labels

Supplier raw material / reel label

- Full product description
- Unique supplier batch ID Code (provides full backward traceability)
- Purchase order number
- Internal Raw material code
- Weight metres etc.

Internal reel identification label

- Unique Works Order Number (Batch ID Code)
- Product Code
- Weight / metres etc.

Finished product label

- Unique Works Order Number (Batch ID Code)
- Reel number
- Product code / description
- Customer Product code / description
- Quantity

The Works Order Job bag accompanies the job throughout production. At the end of the job the bag contains the completed Works Order document, retained quality samples and records. Including:

- All reel labels (or photocopy if part reel returned to stores) from raw materials used.
- A strip of printed material from each reel (attached internal reel label with reel number).
- A bag of sample lids with finished product / customer label.
- Completed works order and relevant QC documents.

A Quality check of returned bags is carried out before filing by product code. No time is specified on retention of the records. Five job bags for each product are retained.

How it works:

If a customer has a problem they quote the batch ID code, from this they can retrieve the relevant job bag and can identify:

- Date and time of manufacture
- Machines used
- Tools used
- Manpower used
- Raw materials used (down to single reel)
- Works order and QC details

If the problem is caused by the raw material they can quote the unique supplier batch ID Code (provides full backward traceability).

It actually sounds pretty straightforward. It is now that it's set up. The problem is getting all parties to agree to the labelling requirements etc. and designing a system that can effectively collate the nescessary information whilst remaining simple to operate.

Regards,
Simon

I have a question on this issue. We use a continuous process. From raw material to finished prduct, traceability gets lost about three times minimum.

How do I get round that one?

How do I get round that one?

You have to define a time interval, starting time and ending time and that's your batch. Regds. Franco