Traceability is an increasingly important and essential tool within the agri-food sector. It rep- resents a very useful tool for analyzing, monitoring and managing the flow of products. In recent years, food traceability has become a key element which all companies have to manage (Myae and Goddard 2012). Food safety is now essential for all operators in the supply chain, and trace- ability is one of the elements necessary to ensure security and to connect consumers and market operators (Liu, Cheng, and Zhang 2013). Food security can be achieved by increasing the quality of products and services taking into consideration the whole supply chain, thus implementing a system that involves all stakeholders, from raw materials to final consumers (Pascu 2013). In ad- dition to ensuring the safety and wholesomeness of food, traceability systems are meant to foster a better relationship with consumers, providing them with information about the products they are buying (Menozzi et al. 2013).
In recent years the scientific community has significantly developed the debate on traceabil- ity, due to various social issues and events that have set food security at the center of public debate. If beforehand tracking was implemented voluntarily by the companies in the supply chain, today it is regulated in many countries with mandatory laws, that rule the basic principles to be followed by market operators (Schwägele 2005).
The literature has dealt to analyze and describe various aspects of traceability as the definition of the concept, the elements for its successful implementation, the technologies, the benefits and barriers to its implementation (Bosona and Gebresenbet 2013). The objective of this paper is to investigate briefly what are the key drivers that have led in recent years an increasing implemen- tation of traceability systems in the food supply chain. Initially, a general analysis is carried out on the definition of traceability and its significance in terms of economic theory. In the second part a subsequent examination of the reasons that lead companies to invest in traceability systems is presented
