Food and feed business operators must have systems and procedures in place to ensure traceability of their products at all stages of production, processing and distribution. An effective traceability system is important in order to quickly and effectively manage food safety risks and to protect consumers. A soundly organised traceability system furthermore reduces the potential economic damage in the event of a public recall and increases the confidence of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) in the business.
Failure to comply with the traceability rules may furthermore lead to high fines. This blog addresses the main points to consider when setting up a food and feed traceability system.
Which businesses must have a traceability system?
The traceability requirements are recorded in Articles 18, 19 and 20 of Regulation 178/2002 (the General Food Law Regulation or GFLR) and are set out in more detail in Implementing Regulation 931/2011. These requirements apply to all businesses that operate in any stage of the production, processing and distribution of food (food businesses) or the production, manufacture, processing, storage, transport or distribution of feed (feed businesses).
A food business agent is also a food business operator and must therefore also meet the traceability requirements (see here). Please note that this does not apply to food hygiene and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) measures arising from Regulation 852/2004.
What requirements must a traceability system meet?
The traceability system covers the entire chain. On the procurement side, a food or feed business operator must be able at all times to trace who supplied it with the food, feed, food-producing animals or other substances intended to be, or expected to be, incorporated into a food or feed. On the sales side, an operator must be able to trace to which businesses it has supplied its products. The operator must have traceability systems and procedures in place for that purpose.
When so requested by the NVWA, the operator must provide, in the short term, the following up-to-date information, among other things: (i) the supplier’s name and address and identification of the products supplied; (ii) the buyer’s name and address and identification of the products delivered; (iii) the date and, if necessary, the time of delivery; and (iv) the volume, if applicable, or the quantity of the products delivered. Operators must be aware that the deadline for providing the requested information is very short. In its Policy Rule, the NVWA sets a deadline of no more than four hours for providing this information.
Operators must furthermore immediately notify the NVWA of their own accord if a product does not meet food or feed safety regulations or is unsafe. The operator must then provide the above information and possibly even carry out a recall (see also this blog).
Food or feed business operators that supply other businesses must furthermore provide sufficient information when making deliveries so that the receiving businesses are also able to meet the traceability requirements.
Regulation 1169/2011 and the Warenbesluit informatie levensmiddelen (Provision of Food Information (Commodities Act) Decree) furthermore set general labelling requirements that are also related to the traceability requirements. For instance, food and feed that are intended to be, or expected to be, placed on the market must also be adequately labelled or marked for traceability purposes. This may include (i) the name of the food; (ii) the list of ingredients; (iii) the name or trade name and address of the operator marketing the food or the importer importing the food into the EU; (iv) the country (or place) of origin; and in the case of frozen meat (v) the date of freezing (Article 9 of Regulation 1169/2011). Operators must mark their products with unique identification codes containing the above information.
Additional traceability requirements for meat and meat products
Meat and meat products are subject to additional traceability requirements under Regulation 1825/2000 and Regulation 1760/2000. For example, every food business must have an identification and registration system for meat traceability. These systems must contain data on the arrival and departure of the animals or the meat, to ensure consistency between incoming and outgoing quantities of meat or numbers of animals. See in this regard the NVWA’s Meat Traceability and Labelling Information Sheet. Specific labelling and identification requirements furthermore apply to meat. Failure to affix such an identification mark may lead to a high fine.
Flawed traceability system leads to high fines
Food and feed business operators are primarily responsible for ensuring that food and feed satisfy the requirements at all stages of production, processing and distribution within the businesses under their control. Operators must monitor this by means of ‘self-control systems’ (Article 17 of Regulation 178/2002). An example is the risk assessment according to the HACCP system.
In the Netherlands, the NVWA monitors compliance with these traceability requirements. It conducts official controls for that purpose. The Policy Rule on the Interpretation of Regulation 178/2002 clarifies the manner in which the NVWA interprets generally formulated terms in the traceability requirements arising from the General Food Law Regulation and Implementing Regulation 931/2011.
The NVWA may impose an administrative fine of up to €5,000 for breach of the traceability requirements. In the event of recidivism, i.e. the same violation within a five-year period, this amount may be doubled each time. The NVWA may also impose an order subject to a penalty, for instance if a company fails to provide the NVWA with all requested information in a timely manner. Please note that an order imposed under Article 18 of Regulation 178/2002 does not go beyond the duty to inform set out there (see here).
Failure to satisfy traceability requirements may also lead to a criminal conviction. In 2023, the District Court of Oost-Brabant sentenced a managing director of a food business to more than two years’ imprisonment for, among other things, systematically and deliberately making flows of cheese whey and potato pulp untraceable, as well as committing forgery.
It is therefore essential to stay abreast of European laws and regulations in order to meet the NVWA’s requirements and to avoid fines.
For more information on NVWA dawn raids, watch this video briefing with practical tips, or go to invalnvwa.nl.
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