The new EU General Food Law that becomes effective on January 1 next year brings with it a requirement for each business to have a system of traceability in place.

It is the responsibility of each member state to interpret the requirements of this law and enforce it in its own country. This is resulting in a proliferation of different national interpretations.

In the UK it is the FSA that has this responsibility. They have undertaken an extensive programme of consultation with industry to determine what approach they should take.

The approach that they intend to take means that businesses will not be required to link goods received with the goods they have sold and they will not be required to track or trace goods to consumers.

This is a “light touch” approach where businesses will only be required to keep a record of the goods they have received and from whom they received them as well as the goods they have sold and to whom they have sold them. This is no more than normal business practice.

The only potentially additional requirement is for wholesalers to record to whom they have made cash sales, information that the Wholesale Division agree their salesmen should record in any case.

We expect further information to be issued by the Food Standards Agency, but in this state this is of considerable benefit to the industry and a success for the FPC.