This view is dedicated to those who are in charge of guaranteeing public health, be it through their function as health authority or through their safeguard function as an NGO. Your mind is probably more set on the food safety aspect of traceability, although you might also be looking for a way to measure sustainability parameters such as food miles along the supply chain.
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INTRODUCTION-PUBLIC AUTHORITY VIEW
This view should be of interest to anyone who is working as part of a public authority or who is interested in the views of a public authority. This view is dedicated to those who are in charge of guaranteeing public health, be it through their function as health authority or through their safeguard function as an NGO.
OPINIONS/FACTS
Public health and food safety
- Introduction to the concept of chain traceability and its potential impact on public health and other areas such as sustainability.
- The particular challenges of the food industry with respect to traceability with special mention of the SME point of view.
- The services (also at the border of the EU) that could be offered if there was an internationally accepted standard for traceability information exchange.
Which laws and regulations are requiring traceability?
The main legal requirement within the EU (and all countries who wish to import into the EU) is the so called 'one up one down' regulations which require business to keep records regarding who they have received goods from and who they have delivered them to.
Individual sectors such as the Beef industry also have their own particular regulations including measure such as 'cattle passports'
How can traceability be used to enforce and monitor authority requirements?
The authority has the function to ensure the safe production of food. There is a fine balance between controlling and ensuring the safe production of food. In any case, however, the administration needs to be in a position to actively manage food crisis and perhaps even control some aspects of the food production (such as animal movement). On the other hand, the public authority doesn't want to burden the food industry too much in order not to jeopardise their competetivity. In addition there are things like the efficiency of border control, fraud protection and other things that have an impact on the food industry that goes beyond the simple interests of a company or a group of companies.
Improving effectiveness of data exchange will allow companies to more easily communicate with regulatory authorities. In addition it is thought that greater ability to check the authenticity of the goods which are supplied will deter fraudulent traders.
What can traceability be used for?
Traceability can be used to support and aid public authorities in many ways.Some examples are;
- Monitoring of export/import, for example documentation of the origin of fish products that they are legal caught from a sustainable fishery.
- Sales and tax
- Food safety, in the event of a food safety incident the depth and precision of a traceability system will be decisive in the time and cost taken to identify the source and take appropriate action. It may also be decisive in limiting the impact upon a specific food sector which in turn will be a cost saving for regulatory authorities.
What do I need to think about?
Public authorities need to be aware that the depth of traceability will raise numerous issues related to privacy, how much should external authorities be able to monitor inside a company?
How will compies react to being oberved? How much information will companies be prepared to make available to public authorities?
