The Food Traceability System is a technical instrument that assists an organisation to achieve its objectives and is applicable when it is necessary to determine the history or place of a product or its most relevant components.

Traceability system selection is determined by regulations, product characteristics and customer expectations.

The complexity of the system may depend on aspects of the product and the objectives to be achieved.

The implementation of an organization's traceability system depends on:

• technical limitations inherent to the organisation and the products (i.e. the nature of the raw materials, batch sizes, collection and transport procedures, process and packaging methods);
• the costs of implementing this type of system.

The ISO 22005:2007 standard establishes the principles and specifications of the basic requirements for the design and implementation of a food traceability system; it can be applied in an organisation that operates at every stage of the food chain, enabling it to achieve its objectives.

The objective of the standard is to support companies in documenting the history of their product, allowing them to trace the location and origin of the product or its components at any time.

With the certification of an independent third party body, the company provides credibility of the commitments to its customers and interested parties.