Plan Definition
A Traceability Plan is a document in which the agricultural company describes how it implements and verifies traceability. A plan must state the objective pursued, the strategy used and the scope it covers.
Minimum objective: Locate an unsafe product quickly and effectively to prevent it from being marketed and reaching the consumer, and to know all the data of its history (treatments received, raw materials, self-monitoring results, etc.) in order to determine the origin of the problem and the existence of other potentially unsafe products.
Traceability is a requirement that blends logistics-related demands across the distribution and processing chain with the quality and safety of produced foods.
The Case of Specialty Coffee
Being able to access the specialty coffee market brings great benefits, but also great challenges. We must be more creative; efficient in producing, selling, positioning products and distributing them.
An efficient distribution process means having the house in order logistically speaking, and being an actor capable of being a strong link in the processing chain.
From a product quality standpoint, and considering that coffee is for human consumption, coffee companies must be capable of producing products safe for human consumption and comply with the food safety regulations in each target market.
Self-Monitoring and HACCP Systems
Self-monitoring is the set of measures and/or practices that serve to eliminate or reduce hazards to acceptable levels to guarantee food safety.
Self-monitoring in agri-food companies must be based on the hazard analysis and critical control points methodology (HACCP). The HACCP system is a scientific and systematic food safety hazard management system that identifies, evaluates and controls significant hazards to food safety.
Prerequisite plans: Also called support plans or general hygiene plans — they are the set of measures or practices that allow control of most general hazards that may occur in a food establishment.
Total Chain Traceability
Each operator in the agro-industrial chain is responsible for enabling their own traceability system. This system must allow knowing the origin and destination of their products — meaning only the immediately preceding (suppliers) and following (customers) links in the food chain.
Fundamental principle: Traceability by itself is not synonymous with safety: we can have a very well-traced but unsafe product, or vice versa. The sum of traceabilities of the different operators along the agro-industrial chain will provide total traceability of products.
In short, traceability is defined as the ability to reconstruct the history of a product and the conditions surrounding it throughout the entire food chain — from the farm to the cup.
