Food Traceability – An Expert Guide for SMBs

Traceability is of vital importance in the food and beverage industry as it may directly impact consumers’ health and well-being. When a defective product or contamination is found, whether before or after shipment, finding the source of the problem expediently is the top priority to ensure public health.

What is traceability?

Traceability is the steps and procedures put in place to be able to track raw materials, components, or ingredients back to the original source. It also identifies where and when finished goods have been manufactured. In the food industry, this includes where and when each item is processed and inspected.

This is crucial to finding the source of contamination, and in quick and accurate notification of product callback, also known as product recall. So, in addition to in-house tracking, the manufacturer must also verify and document the entire food supply chain from which it obtained materials.

Why is traceability important in manufacturing industries?

The December 2025 recall in the United States of more than 45 brands of bagged shredded cheese highlights the importance of traceability in food and beverage manufacturing. The cheeses, which were manufactured by one company and sold to retailers under various brands, potentially contained metal fragments that could be dangerous to human consumers. The cheese products were sold to distributors such as Walmart, Costco, and various other retailers.

The recall stresses the importance of maintaining accurate records when contamination or defects are noticed. Thanks to the company’s traceability methods and practices, the contaminated products could be recalled and replaced by noncontaminated products. Recalls are necessary to protect the public from foodborne illnesses and injuries.

Not only were the types of cheeses identified, but where they were sent and when they were sold to distribution chains was also available. The package sizes, lot numbers, and sell-by dates were posted. Fortunately, their compliance data was up-to-date and accurate.

Compliance

When you’re manufacturing products that people eat, drive, or depend on for their health, traceability isn’t just a nice-to-have feature. It’s the law. Food businesses, pharmaceutical companies, automotive manufacturers, and aerospace suppliers all operate under strict regulatory oversight from agencies like the FDA, USDA, FAA, and their international equivalents.

These regulations exist for good reason. Public safety is the most important concern for regulatory bodies. When a contaminated food product needs to be recalled or a defective automotive component is discovered, traceability systems play a crucial role. They allow manufacturers to quickly identify which batches are affected, where they went, and who might be at risk.

Without meeting the recordkeeping requirements, you can’t operate legally in these regulated industries, period. To do so would be wrong at the very least, and possibly criminally negligent at the most.

Accountability

Within the food and beverage industry, maintaining food safety can get very complicated, very fast. Most of the time, the potential for contamination can come from multiple sources in the food supply chain, both inside and outside of the processing facility. That’s one important reason to make sure you have a robust supply chain management system in place.

Let’s take frozen pizza, for example. It seems simple until you consider the supply chain from which the ingredients come.

• The dough might contain flour from wheat grown in three states.
• Yeast from a biological supplier.
• Water from municipal sources.
• Cooking oil from yet another vendor.
• The cheese could be a blend from multiple dairies.
• The sauce includes tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy greens, spices, and preservatives from different suppliers.
• The pepperoni is made from pork from various farms, processed with seasonings from around the world.

So the straightforward pizza now becomes a more complex situation. And with that complexity, traceability becomes a more involved, yet vital procedure. Even simple operations involving a single product can be complex when it comes down to traceability. Here’s a good example.

I worked for 36 years as a maintenance tech in a poultry processing plant. We basically had one product, a Cornish hen. While most of the time we sold and packaged whole birds, sometimes we did halves. But there were no seasonings or other modifications made.

However, our raw product came from farms all over the region. That meant we had to process them by farm so as to keep them tracked properly.

Additionally, there were a few changes made to the processing itself for the various countries we shipped to. All of this had to be tracked in order for the product to be fully traceable in the event of defects or contamination. So while we were a United States human foods processor, there were times when our traceability had to satisfy standards in various global markets.

Basic requirements for the food & beverage industry

There are some basic practices and requirements that manufacturers must follow in the food & beverage industry. The requirements will be the same for both large processors and SMBs. The size of the company has little to no effect on the regulations you need to adhere to. The required food traceability systems and recordkeeping requirements cover all food producers, from mom and pop shops to major national and international brands.

The rules and regulations are always subject to change by the governing bodies. So make sure you find and follow the most current information. In the United States, adhere to FDA regulations. There are some changes that are in the works for 2026 and you can learn more about them in this article about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA) concerning the timeline for meeting additional traceability records and their final rule on the subject. The article includes FAQs about the particulars concerning the compliance date requirements.

Unfortunately, traceability compliance isn’t standardized across the globe, even though food processing is a high-risk industry. Requirements for tracking can and will differ based on the location of not only where your product is made, but also where it is distributed.

The EU, US, and Asian markets all have distinct requirements and continue to evolve. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated and exacerbated the evolution of requirements as regulators were forced into new territory they hadn’t encountered. So your best approach in determining what your traceability protocols need to satisfy in any new or existing market is to find out what is compliant in that jurisdiction.

Two examples of legislators’ traceability requirements.

Just to give you a taste of what traceability compliance looks like, here are two examples. One is from the European Union (EU and European Commission regulations. The other is taken from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the United States.

The EU requires food operators to track one step backward and one step forward in the supply chain:

• One step back: Know who supplied your materials and ingredients
• One step forward: Know who received your finished products

Maintain records of these immediate transactions, including receipts, shipment confirmations, and origin documentation. This shared approach creates a traceable supply chain without requiring any single operator to monitor the entire supply network from raw materials to the end consumer.

The FDA’s approach breaks traceability into manageable pieces:

First, they identified five critical points where tracking matters most – Growing, Receiving, Transforming, Creating, and Shipping. These are your Critical Tracking Events (CTEs).

Then, they defined what information you need to capture at each point—your Key Data Elements (KDEs). Depending on the CTE, you might need to record:

• Lot codes and batch numbers.
• Geographic origin of ingredients.
• Transportation company information.
• Storage facility details.
• Production location credentials.

The specific KDEs you track depend on which CTE you’re documenting. Receiving raw materials requires different data than shipping finished products.

One thing should be obvious. In order to satisfy all the requirements for food processing traceability, manual tracking alone won’t cut it. You need to employ some sort of software-based tech that can keep up with production and give you real-time answers.

Essential traceability functions for food and drink manufacturers

When choosing a manufacturing ERP software to assist in traceability, the following items are essential. Remember this, however: whatever you choose, the solution must be usable and readable by both hardware and humans.

Serial number, batch, and lot tracking

Traceability always begins with assigning a unique number to everything you produce. In the food manufacturing industry, that usually means using batch and lot numbers.

Serial number tracking is used when you produce unique, individual items such as televisions or automobiles. While they may be similar, each one is a distinctive product. Recalls are normally sent using ranges of consecutive serial numbers. Serial numbers make sense for that scenario.

If, though, you produce 10,000 jars of pasta sauce in a single production run, serial numbers don’t make sense. Instead, you’ll likely use batch numbers to identify all the sauce produced during that time frame. All the relevant information—ingredient lot codes, process timestamps, Quality Assurance test results, storage information—can be attached to that batch number.

Note that within that batch number, lot codes for individual components, such as ingredients, are attached. That way, if several lots fail or require recall, it’s possible to trace the defect to the vendor in the supply chain. The batch number is your reference point for everything the 10,000 jars underwent.

Shop floor control and internal reporting

Knowing which batch has a problem is only half the story. You also need to know what happened to that batch during production.

Shop floor tracking captures the operational details:

• When: Date and time of each processing step.
• Who: Which operator or team performed the work.
• Where: Which production line or workstation was used.
• What: Specific process parameters or conditions.

This turns a simple batch number into a detailed production biography. Instead of just knowing “Batch 12345 has a defect,” you can determine “Batch 12345 was processed on Line 3, during the second shift, by operator Johnson, on Tuesday at 2:47 PM.”

Even transfers from one location to another in a cooler or freezer should be tracked by entering them into the system. A refrigeration malfunction could be the culprit, and knowing which items were placed there could potentially cut back on the number of items to be recalled.

That level of detail included in traceability information transforms problem-solving from guesswork into targeted investigation. Modern systems use digital kiosks and worker terminals to capture this information automatically as production happens. Even forklifts can be outfitted with handheld or mounted devices to ensure proper data recording.

Labeling and barcode systems

Digital or electronic tracking still needs a human interface. Even if RFID chips are used for tracking, inventory labels and barcodes let workers quickly verify they’ve got the right product without consulting paperwork or databases. Labels should spell out important information like lot codes. Not even experienced workers can read a barcode. But they can read the label and ensure it matches the information gleaned from scanning the barcode. I’ve also seen times when the barcode was damaged in handling, and the human-readable label saved the day.

Whether picking ingredients from the warehouse, confirming batches on the production line, or preparing customer shipments, employees can instantly scan or read “this is the correct batch” and keep moving. That two-second verification prevents the mistakes that cause real problems. Mistakes like using expired ingredients, processing the wrong formula, or shipping mislabeled products that trigger recalls.

Expiry tracking and FEFO

One thing the food and beverage industry must pay particular attention to is product expiration data. Tracking expiry dates plays a crucial part in traceability recordkeeping, from the raw materials and ingredients being supplied by vendors to you for your operations to monitoring the shelf life of completed products.

Using a FEFO (First-Expired-First-Out) method of inventory valuation will greatly assist those manufacturers that process perishable food and drink products. One thing that’s good to remember is that while freezing perishables may extend shelf life, it doesn’t prolong it indefinitely.

Quality inspections and control

Quality control or quality assurance notations play a vital role in your operations and traceability recordkeeping. But it’s important to understand that these are not just accept/reject decisions they make. They’re also a critical portion of your operational documentation.

In many processing facilities, the Quality Assurance departments set up HACCPs or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. They checked everything from the quality and conditions of raw ingredients coming in (downstream supply chain) to spots in the process where defects are noticed (production line shortcomings).

If your quality inspections are connected to your traceability system, inspection results are now searchable intelligence data that allow spot patterns of inefficiency or deficiency.

Match tools to real needs

Traceability goes beyond just product quality. Consider what your operation specifically requires. It may be allergen management if you run multiple formulas or consignment tracking for contract production. You may need version control for recipe changes.

Identify these critical needs upfront, not after you’ve already chosen a system. Make sure the software you choose can handle what you need now and in the future. Remember, if it doesn’t work for what you need, it just won’t work. Plan carefully.

Food and beverage traceability best practices

Let’s wrap this up by looking at five food & drink processing best practices. When you implement them properly, it will help make sure your food manufacturing facilities stay within compliance standards and regulations.

Rigorous employee training

Operating equipment is straightforward. Following traceability procedures consistently—even when production is behind schedule—requires training that sticks.

Employees must understand the why behind what they’re asked to do. They need to know how their documentation prevents recalls, protects consumers, and keeps the operation compliant. Make this training ongoing, particularly when changes happen. 

It’s not just a Day One checkbox. It’s a career-long expectation for all stakeholders involved.

Transparent communication

Technology enables and enhances traceability. But a culture of transparency makes it work. It starts with your suppliers. If they know you’ll be open and honest about sharing quality concerns, they’ll learn to trust you and work with you to mitigate problems.

Yes, there will be audits on your business. But if regulatory inspectors know you keep good records and are willing to share the results, they’ll see you as a company that demonstrates a commitment to both compliance and collaboration.

Developing clear communication protocols for sharing quality data with your supply chain vendors, for disclosing potential concerns with customers, and compliance status with regulatory bodies, doesn’t show weakness. On the contrary, it strengthens your position in the food processing community.

Human-readable information

It’s a fact that traceability adds steps to your operation. But they’re necessary steps, nonetheless. But keep in mind that it’s not just machines or artificial intelligence that need to read the data. Humans do as well.

Therefore, design your traceability tagging for the least technically inclined user. Use readable fonts on labels. Make sure your data formats are easily understood. Use logical lot numbering systems. When your employees can quickly identify and understand product data without having to decode an inscrutable label, traceability is faster and more accurate.

Think of it this way: if your Grandma can’t figure out the expiration date, it’s back to the drawing board. Readable information helps everyone involved in the supply chain work faster and more efficiently when it comes to traceability.

Be prepared for callbacks and RMAs

No matter how hard you try, callbacks and RMAs (Return Merchandise Authorizations) happen. It’s just a fact of life in the manufacturing world. How you handle it, particularly in the high-risk food processing industry, makes a huge difference.

Part of setting up a traceability protocol is getting prepared for the inevitable recall. The time is now to ask the hard questions.

• Who makes the recall decision?
• Who contacts which customers?
• How do you retrieve products from distribution?
• What do you tell regulators, and when?
• Which internal teams need to be involved?

Be sure to document your process by creating a traceability record of required items and actions. Even if regulators show up to audit your business when there’s not a recall event, just showing you’re prepared to meet requirements with a food traceability list and complete recordkeeping will go a long way toward showing your commitment to product quality, traceability, and public health and well-being.

Use traceability software

Let’s be totally honest here. It doesn’t matter if you’re a huge national food processing company or a regional SMB just getting started. Traceability standards are the same for everyone. Even modest food operations will generate potentially huge traceability complexity. And the struggle to keep up with compliance regulations is harder every year.

It’s obvious that keeping up with the ever-changing regulations will require more than just a pencil and paper or just a few Excel spreadsheets. Manual methods seem manageable initially, but complexity compounds fast. Add seasonal products, new suppliers, or co-manufacturing/co-packing arrangements, and spreadsheet tracking becomes unsustainable.

Remember, manual spreadsheet tracking will fail, not because of the SMB’s size, but because of the sheer complexity. One single allergen issue or contamination share will show the gaps in traceability protocols and could damage a business’s reputation beyond salvaging.

The time to seek a software solution isn’t when your manual tracking crashes and burns. It’s now, before traceability challenges get out of hand.

It’s possible to get standalone solutions that track and record just the data pertaining to traceability. But it still needs some adaptation or alteration for integration with your manufacturing ERP.

A better solution would be to use software that seamlessly integrates traceability metrics with production metrics. Manufacturing ERPs like MRPeasy work for operations of any size, scaling as you grow. Small producers get the same lot tracking and automated reporting as larger operations, without the complexity or cost of enterprise systems requiring IT specialists.

Key takeaways

• To ensure traceability, every item in your supply chain must be verified, along with any action that concerns their handling or processing.
• Food processing is a highly regulated industry and traceability is a vital requirement as legislation continues to become stricter as new scenarios unfold.
• To ensure traceability in food production, several key functions and actions must be included, such as batch and lot tracking, in-house reporting and documentation, quality assuring inspections, and the application of labeling and barcodes.
• Rigorous and ongoing employee training, human-readable information, transparent communication for all parties involved, and a defined, documented procedure for callbacks and RMAs are essential features of overall traceability protocols.
• Using traceability software cuts down on the possibility of human error and expedites the necessary data collection and documentation.
• Compared to stand-alone traceability software that must be integrated into a production management system, manufacturing ERP software with built-in traceability features is not only more reliable, but will usually ensure you have a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) for your process operations.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

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