Traceability in Productis system is an innovative approach to verify the origin of food, which will have a significant impact both on final consumers, legislators and producers from the food industry, involving large cost savings. With a food traceability system according to HACCP/ISO 22000, it can intervene and recall from market at any time, precise on lot and batch, entirely and from every point of sale, the product that of a reason or other requests this thing. The traceability is seen as a way of ensuring the control, quality and efficiency

Chetroiu, Rodica

Iurchevici, Lidia

Munich Personal RePEc Archive

MPRA
Munich Personal RePEc Archive
The importance of traceability in
certification the quality of animal
products
Lidia Iurchevici and Rodica Chetroiu
The Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural
Development, The Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and
Rural Development
20 November 2014
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/61733/
MPRA Paper No. 61733, posted 1 February 2015 06:28 UTC
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRACEABILITY IN CERTIFICATION THE 
QUALITY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS 
 
IURCHEVICI LIDIA,
1
 CHETROIU RODICA 
2
 
 
Abstract: Traceability in Productis system is an innovative approach to verify the origin of food, which will have a 
significant impact both on final consumers, legislators and producers from the food industry, involving large cost 
savings. With a food traceability system according to HACCP / ISO 22000, it can intervene and recall from market at 
any time, precise on lot and batch, entirely and from every point of sale, the product that of a reason or other requests 
this thing. The traceability is seen as a way of ensuring the control, quality and efficiency. 
 
Keywords: traceability, food safety, consumers 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
The traceability is the capacity to identify and track a foodstuff, a forage for animals, an 
animal or a substance intended or expected to be incorporated into a food or a forage, at all levels of 
production, processing and distribution. In accordance with this definition, traceability is a process 
that covers the entire supply chain and in which different companies collaborate to optimize the 
interfaces determined of various directions, domains and sub-processes. Therefore, in our opinion, 
this is the way to meet consumer expectations in terms of safety and quality of products. 
The current food safety policy is based on a number of principles which applied in 
accordance with the integrated approach „from farm to fork”, specifically include transparency, risk 
analysis and prevention, protection of consumer interests and the free circulation of safe and quality 
products in the internal market and in relation with other states. In the food policy in Romania, food 
safety plays an important role in the global concept of nutrition. Food safety is, for the most part, 
subject to the environment state and resources: biodiversity; level of pollution; water, soil, 
resources; climate changes; human factors and globalization. The traceability and quality of meat 
and meat products are requirements for domestic and European market, which require, in turn, an 
adequate infrastructure, equipments and service network. 
 
MATERIAL AND METHOD 
 
Traceability is a solution for the consumer protection, but also an instrument of control and 
delineation of responsibility. If a product or a greater amount of foodstuff were altered, the 
producer, through a traceability system, has the capacity to check if the reason is generally related 
to the entire lot or batch. Or is a situation well defined and precise and the cause of this event must 
be investigated at dealer: the mode of storage and manipulation, presentation mode and 
circumstances, exposure etc. 
The traceability as a process of the distribution chain, can be conducted in two distinct 
directions: tracking forward or downward traceability (capacity to locate a product, based on 
specific criteria, at any point of the distribution chain) and tracking back or ascending traceability 
(capacity to identify the origin and characteristics of a product based on criteria established in a 
uniform manner for all points of the distribution chain). 
Through the traceability of meat products, are managed and monitored informative data on 
the origin of the materials, the processing history and deliveries to the points of sale. The meat 
processing enterprises are involved in a network of chains (livestock, slaughtering, meat transport, 
                                                 
1
 Eng. Iurchevici Lidia – Scientific researcher III, The Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural 
Development, e-mail: lidia.iurchevici@iceadr.ro 
2
 Eng. Chetroiu Rodica – Scientific researcher, The Research Institute for Agriculture Economy and Rural 
Development, e-mail: rodica.chetroiu@iceadr.ro 
 
 
wholesale trade and detail trade), with common interconnection points. The traceability is referring 
at projecting and implementation of processes in accordance with the system requirements. 
According to CAC - Codex Alimentarius Commission 60-2006, traceability means the capacity to 
track the movement of a specific food at different stages of production, processing and distribution. 
 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 
 
The traceability of the food products is done by chaining the information regarding raw 
material (for example - meat) and secondary on the entire production process. The meat traceability 
can be achieved because the production process in the meat industry has some major steps and well 
defined, which differ depending on the recipe and technology. 
A sector with major problems in ensuring product and service quality is the production and 
distribution of food. In this sector was and is needed by many food safety regulations. 
Events such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the flocks of some Western European 
countries, dioxin contamination of poultry, swine pest and others, have made European consumer 
confidence, and not only, in the products they consume, to be seriously affected; consequently, it 
caused a real crisis on the Unique Market. Therefore, the food security has become top priority to 
regain the consumer confidence. The beef market was the most affected. 
To remove the problems in this sector, the European Commission has commissioned a fast 
form of trace of bovine meat in the distribution chain. Moreover, at the proposal of the European 
Commission, the Council and the European Parliament adopted a Regulation of mandatory labeling 
of bovine meat - CE No. 1760/2000 that became mandatory in all EU countries, since January 2001. 
It complements other Community legislation particularly important, namely the European Directive 
820/97 (entered into force on 01.01.2000), which amends, in an irreversible form, the bovine meat 
chain operation, requiring the parties to link the physical flow of products to the information flow, 
thus ensuring the traceability of beef. Realizing the complexity of this regulation, the Association of 
EAN International (EAN - European Article Numbering) by 16 national numbering bodies from 
Europe, along with 17 other community organizations and European leaders in the bovine meat 
trade, have made the traceability system „Traceability of Beef” based on barcode UCC / EAN-128 
(SREN 799: 1998) and IA application identifiers (SREN 1571: 1998). This system is used 
worldwide today; it meets all EU regulations and makes possible the quality certification for the 
enterprises in the meat processing industry. 
Identification and traceability solutions include the physical flow of animals, intermediate 
products (carcasses and chopped) and finished products (meat packing) throughout the meat chain. 
The communication solutions of the EAN system refer to the information flow in the chain. In 
general, companies are not involved in one chain, but in a network of chains (livestock, meat, 
retail), with common interconnection points. By traceability of meat products is intended to provide 
data on the origin and processing history. For this, it is necessary that the meat chain to 
communicate permanently with the chain of the animals slaughtered to obtain the meat. To ensure a 
correct, reliable and cost effective application of the EU Directive 820/97, without creating trade 
barriers, the suppliers of carcasses and cut meat must identify their own products using EAN-128 
bar code. Thus, printing the additional information on the package could be integrated in the 
existing process of EAN-13 labeling. 
Also in the food sector, in terms of consumer protection and safety, there have been 
recorded numerous cases determined of the marketing products with a high content of harmful 
substances used as food additives, products in which occurred genetic manipulation of organisms 
etc. All these have determined the community organizations to develop new proposals and elaborate 
new hygiene rules for the production of food commodities. The chemicals introduced into food as 
additives were coded by the letter E, followed by three digits. Additives considered as hazardous to 
the human body (eg: E123, E142, E211) are banned in the EU, USA, CIS.  
The European Commission has approved a proposal of the Parliament and the Council by 
which was established The European Food Authority - EFA, the body which cooperates with FAO, 
OMS, consumer protection bodies, etc. A topical issue of these Community bodies is to develop 
regulations on the traceability of all foods and food ingredients. To achieve the requirements under 
this principle, the new regulations will require registration of any food business and numbering 
products. The evidence of suppliers of ingredients, semi-finished and finished food products will be 
mandatory in all sectors of the food industry. The instruments of EAN / UCC system are fully 
capable of meeting the requirements of these regulations, for example: 
 The numbering system of commercial items and locations allow the safe international 
identification of commercial items and suppliers; 
 Symbolization by the barcodes EAN-13, EAN-8 or UPC-A and UPC-E, and UCC / EAN-
128, all accompanied by international standards ISO and European standards EN, enable 
transposition on labels of information about the producers and providers in standardized 
format. The concentration of these data using Application Identifiers - AI in barcode UCC / 
EAN-128 makes possible the traceability of food products. The EAN / UCC system was 
designed to provide standardized, unambiguous means of identification items and 
companies operating in different points of the national and international distribution chain. 
The identification data, traceability, shelf life, etc. encoded in the bar code does not replace 
the information clearly on the product label. These data must be identical to those listed in 
clear format on the label. 
 The traceability of food products is an indicator of the power of company on the food 
market. Traceability on the production line is according to HACCP / ISO 22000 (risk analysis on 
critical control points). This indicates the power and compliance of the producing food company 
that consists in building and strengthening consumer confidence in the own products because it has 
total control over the traceability both on own production and on the market. 
 A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical or physical agent present in food, with the 
potential to cause an adverse health effect. Risk is an estimate of the probability and severity of a 
hazard, is a function of probability of an adverse effect (an item of microbiological, chemical or 
physical nature) on  the health and the severity of that effect (death, hospitalization, absence from 
work, etc. ). The risks are often encountered in the activities with food products, when food may 
endanger the public health. The major risks must be distinguished from the minor. 
A risk is major if: 
 There is an increased probability that „risky” food to be consumed 
 The emergence of risk has serious consequences for public health (eg. glass shards in jam, 
nails, wire in the bakery products) 
 There is an increased probability that consumer health will suffer from it. 
Typical critical control points are: 
  A metal detector to identify fragments of metal in the finished product. 
 A stage of heat treatment specifically projected to destroy pathogens or to adjust the pH of 
acidified products, in order to control the pathogens. 
Establish critical limits 
 Critical limits are the criteria that distinguish between „safe” and potentially „unsafe”, are 
defined by law, safety standards and values scientifically demonstrated and represent 
measurable parameters that can be determined and monitored. 
Monitoring requires a systematic measurement or observation of the critical control point 
regarding the critical limits. Examples of factors that must be defined before the start of the 
monitoring procedure: 
 Approach - check the expiry date, the cold store temperature and storage period 
 Frequency - weekly or daily if necessary 
 Responsibility of the economic operator, kitchen manager, chef 
The establishing of the procedures that are performed regularly and operate efficiently is 
based on: 
 Verification: Confirm the correctitude of something by control 
 Verification of HACCP system (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) through its 
operating capacity. 
 It is confirmed that the activity involved by the HACCP program is carried out effectively, 
correctly and logically. 
 The process must be checked at least once a year and between periods of change procedures 
or compositions. An example of change would be to extend your range of products which 
involves adding new operations. 
 For storing full records to prove for example the efficiency or for the inspection of the 
representatives of authorities, all HACCP stages must be documented. 
 In addition, the HACCP concept is a valuable tool that brings to consumer evidence if there 
are complains or even food poisoning. 
 HACCP documents must be retained even after expiring of the product, without exception. 
 Food business operators are legally required by EU legislation: 
 to show the authorities that respects the principles of HACCP 
 to update procedures / documents of the food safety system, whenever changes occur (eg. a new 
recipe that requires a new technological flow and different process parameters) 
 to keep the documents and records for an appropriate period 
 With a food traceability system according to HACCP / ISO 22000, it can intervene and 
recall from market at any time, precise on lot and batch, entirely and from every point of sale, the 
product that of a reason or other requests this thing. The traceability is seen as a way of ensuring the 
control, quality and efficiency. Traceability in Productis system is an innovative approach to verify 
the origin of food, which will have a significant impact both on final consumers, legislators and 
producers from the food industry, involving large cost savings.  
 
CONCLUSIONS 
 
The food sector enterprises that want to maintain or strengthen their market position, must 
take drastic measures in the future to ensure quality, traceability, logistics efficiency and 
information sharing. 
By applying these measures is aimed at: 
 database on production, processing, marketing of food products; 
 sustainable increasing of internal production of food by reducing the risks, dangers and 
losses throughout the production chain to the consumer and minimize as much as possible 
the food waste; 
 preventive security by supporting distributors and consumer confidence for products sold; 
 possibility of safe operation in the event of irregularities of the product (retrieval and 
withdrawal of goods, or locating the source of the problem, to prevent its spreading); 
 delimitation of responsibility in the traceability chain; 
 the shipping code using - SSCC - as key in the logistics processes to ensure better 
traceability. 
The paper will have a positive impact in terms of technical, also on the economic agents, in 
terms of increasing the quality of food offered to the market, by compliance with the techniques and 
application of technologies recommended by adopting traceability system and ensure compatibility 
with other systems at national and international levels in order to ensure transparency and 
confidence with the business partners. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
1. Eugenia Alecu şi colaboratorii , Trasabilitatea – element cheie al transparentei Editura Ceres, Bucureşti, 2010; 
2. Mariana Grodea (2013), coautor Cap. Piaţa laptelui în România – evoluţii şi tendinţe post-aderare,  publicata  în 
Determinanţi  economici,   sociali  şi  instituţionali  ai  performanţelor  şisecurităţii alimentare, Păun Ion Otiman, 
Filon Toderoiu, Elena Sima (coord), Editura AcademieiRomâne, Bucureşti, 604 pagini, pag. 301-316, ISBN 978-
973-27-2367-8; 
3. INFO EAN ROMANIA, Buletin trimestrial de informare, Editura GENICOD, Bucureşti, Colecţiile: 2002, 2003, 
2004, 2006; 
4. Istudor Nicolae, Proiectarea unui sistem informaţional pentru monitorizarea trasabilităţii în producţia cărnii de 
porc, Bucureşti, 2010. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


The importance of traceability in certification the quality of animal products

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