The traceability of typical products should help to promote their specific characteristics. Up to now, standard-setting work at the international level has been concerned with only a very general definition of traceability. Traceability of typical products, regardless of the methods used to implement it, requires a means of identifying animals and animal products, farms and production sites and recording the required information, and must take into account the characteristics to be traced. As an adjunct to existing tracing methods, DNA analysis can help to confirm documentary traceability but is not in itself sufficient to ensure full traceability. There must also be analytical methods to verify the type of feed used in a typical production system. Traceability of typical products firstly requires a precise organisational analysis of the breeding and the way the products are produced, so as to determine how traceability can best be achieved without being too complicated to put in practice or too reliant on the registered information. Traceability will be much easier to achieve if the animals from which the typical products are derived are not mixed with other animals, if there are not too many movements to be taken into account, if the processing of the products takes place in the same establishment and if there is a clear separation from any other products being processed in the same establishment. Proper implementation of traceability requires concerted action by all stakeholders, the acceptance of certification by an external body and official checks.
展开▼
