Here we are. European regulation 178/2002 on food traceability is now fully operational.

Fully, despite the fact the buzz throughout France over whether January 1 was the ultimate deadline or if the industry could profit from some delay in the regulation’s implementation.

However, to clarify matters, last month the European Union gave an un-official report on how the new rules could be implemented.

It advised that traceability should concern everyone, except the final consumer, and no delay will be accepted.

The report made interesting reading, but it came too late: everyone was far from being ready on the date.

In fact, it seems the fresh produce sector throughout France is a long way from the forefront when it comes to traceability.

Last April, GS1 (formerly Gencod France) surveyed the implementation of EAN standards in fresh produce facilities and the results were not good for operators.

Only five per cent of cartons and other packaging used to make up a pallet were marked, and not a single whole pallet was identified.

Worse, the fresh produce sector was ranked as the worst in respect of EAN-UCC standards and had the highest level of absence of any batch identification on crates.

French wholesalers should take note of this.

The news is rather depressing as the industry was instrumental in developing several very useful traceability tools such as the TraceFel system or QualiPom’Fel and Fel’Engagement internal standardisation.

Another pressing point associated with the European regulation concerns temperature control on market premises.

It is a tricky issue: should the entire market be refrigerated or just the stands themselves?

After all, salad traders do not need the same temperature for their products as soft-fruit traders require for theirs.

Without a doubt this will be a hotly debated topic in the forthcoming months especially for the 200-plus wholesalers at Rungis.

Finally, I would like to wish you all an excellent year in 2005.