Food traceability: the best strategy to implement

Food traceability is essential to ensure safety, compliance, and trust within your supply chain. For B2B businesses, adopting the right traceability strategy helps minimize risks, optimize operations, and stand out from the competition. Here’s how you can implement an effective traceability strategy today.

Who needs food traceability?

Food traceability isn’t just for producers—it involves every link in the food supply chain:

• Producers: At the start of the chain, they provide crucial information on the origin of raw materials and farming or breeding methods.
• Processors: They document every stage of production, from ingredient mixing to final packaging.
• Distributors: They play a key role in ensuring traceability information remains up-to-date and accessible throughout transport and sales.
• Consumers: At the end of the chain, they rely on transparent, reliable information to make informed purchasing decisions based on quality and safety standards.

Which products require traceability?

Food traceability applies to all food products, whether raw or processed. For example:

• Fresh products like fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs must be tracked from harvest or farming to store shelves.
• Processed foods such as prepared meals, deli meats, and dairy products require detailed monitoring due to potential allergen and contamination risks.
• Canned, frozen, and beverage products also need tracking, even with their longer, more complex production processes.
• Ingredients like additives, spices, and flour fall under traceability regulations, as they are often used in multiple food products.

The ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of all food products and maintain full traceability of each component in case of an issue.

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Regulatory compliance

Many countries have strict regulations governing food traceability. In the U.S., the FDA enforces traceability rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), requiring businesses to track and document food movement throughout the supply chain.

Traceability laws ensure that companies maintain accurate records of each production and distribution stage. If a safety issue arises, contaminated batches can be quickly identified and removed from the market, minimizing public health risks and preserving brand credibility.

Regulations continue to evolve, incorporating technological advancements and new industry practices, requiring businesses to stay informed and compliant.

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What information needs to be recorded?

To maintain full food traceability, businesses must collect and store detailed data at every stage. This includes:

• Product origin: Supplier name and address, production location, raw materials used.
• Processing details: Applied methods, processing dates, production facility location.
• Transportation and storage conditions: Temperature logs and cold chain monitoring to ensure product integrity.‍
• Final product tracking: Batch numbers, production and expiration dates, and labeling details for easy traceability throughout the product lifecycle.

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The best strategy for food traceability: inventory management software

What is an inventory and sales management software?

For years, businesses manually tracked inventory using spreadsheets or handwritten logs. While familiar, this method is time-consuming and prone to errors.

The emergence of specialized inventory and sales management software has revolutionized these processes by:

• Automating order placement;
• Tracking real-time inventory levels;
• Centralizing sales performance data on a single interface.

For food traceability, these tools also manage lot tracking and expiration dates, making it easier to identify and locate each product from purchase to sale. In the event of a recall, defective batches can be quickly removed from distribution.

Why is inventory management software essential?

A software solution with built-in traceability features offers key benefits:

• Centralized data: Eliminates duplication and inconsistencies by storing all production and distribution data in one place.
• Automation of repetitive tasks: Streamlines inventory updates and report generation, reducing human error and saving time.
• Quality control support: Enables quick access to product history, expiration dates, and warehouse locations with just a few clicks.
• Enhanced customer service: Sales teams can access real-time data to address customer inquiries or product concerns efficiently.
• Regulatory compliance: Ensures precise record-keeping, simplifying audits and inspections.

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Erplain: the ideal solution

Among available solutions, Erplain stands out for its user-friendly interface and effectiveness, particularly for food distributors.

Its intuitive platform allows businesses to track lot numbers, expiration dates, and warranty details with ease, even for teams without technical expertise. By integrating purchasing, restocking planning, and invoicing, Erplain helps reduce ordering errors and minimize waste.

Dropshipping is also simplified—products can be transferred directly from supplier to customer without intermediaries, improving efficiency and responsiveness.

With Erplain, businesses can easily meet strict regulatory requirements and increase transparency to satisfy growing consumer expectations. The software builds a reliable product database, covering every stage of the food supply chain.

Ultimately, Erplain empowers businesses to maintain a strong reputation, protect consumers, and unlock new growth opportunities in international markets.

As a SaaS solution tailored to small and medium-sized businesses, Erplain addresses all your inventory management needs. Try it for free today!

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