Traceability?

Definition
We understand by traceability the aptitude to recall the history, the use or the localization of an entity by means of recorded identifications. The traceability makes it possible to follow and thus to find a product or a service since its creation (production) till its destruction (consumption).
The traceability is not defined by a law but by a standard, namely the international standard ISO 8402. The traceability is the indication of the product's origin put on the market. The GeoTraceAgri project goes further proposing the indication from the geographical origin of the product.

A little history
Of a simple logistic concept in the beginning, the traceability became a legal obligation today. The history of the traceability has, in fact, started in France on May 6, 1969 with the publication of the decree 69-422 which gave to the Etablissements Départementaux d'Elevage (Departmental Establishments of Breeding - EDE) the mission to identify and record the sheep, caprine and bovine, with an aim of improvement of the races.
This process (which did not bear yet the name of traceability) was then generalized in order to eradicate with more effectiveness the contagious diseases, the system having been standardized for the first time in 1995.

Then came the EC regulation 820/97 (April 21, 1997) establishing a system of identify and record the cattle and try to stop the fall of consumption, the confidence of the consumers having been seriously lowered by the crisis of BSE or disease known as "the mad cow".
Since then, the serious food crises good known which followed one another at unrestrained intervals made only persuade, as well industrialists as the distributors, consumers as the authorities of the pressing need "for tracing" the agricultural produce.