Food producers, manufacturers, and retailers address the management of food safety and quality through implementation of food safety and quality management systems based on international standards such as ISO 9001and ISO 22000. Effective implementation and operation of these management systems requires the organizations to establish and maintain a traceability system. This system enables the identification of product lots and their relation to batches of raw materials, processing and delivery records. Thus, traceability is of greater importance to food industry considering that food safety hazards can occur at any stage of the food chain. So in case of a food incident occurrence, the traceability system will facilitate the process of product recall or withdrawal of defective or potentially unsafe products from the marketplace.

Nowadays, traceability has become a regulatory requirement to protect human health and consumers interests in relation to food. National and international standards have made it even easier. Besides many other guidance standards and technical specifications of ISO 22000 family, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 22005:2007, an international standard that gives the principles and specifies basic requirements for the design and implementation of a traceability system, in agro-food industry (including feeds).

Benefits of ISO 22005

• Customer satisfaction
• Reduce operational costs
• Operational efficiencies
• Improve stakeholder relationship
• Legal compliance
• Improve risk management