ABSTRACT
Food scares were associated with microorganisms, new technology, environmental pollution or changes in co-product management. Recently, there have been several notable incidences that are explained in this chapter. The term Traceability has appeared recently in international regulations but traceability was already used by industries to optimize their process and finance. The mad cow crisis, in 1996, showed the deficiencies in monitoring food and feed in the EU. Traceability is a tool that enables industrial flow management effectively in two ways (tracing and tracking). It permits to remove the food as quickly as possible from the market in case of incidents that can be detrimental for the health of the consumers. The mad cow crisis, dioxin, rejection of GMOs, avian influenza had developed a sense of mistrust of consumers in respect to the quality and food safety. It became mandatory to establish a robust traceability system to minimize the production and distribution of unsafe or bad quality food. This article gives information on the means that can be used to trace food and the operators, history of traceability, preventive policy to avoid crisis, GMOs, precautionary principle, European regulation on chemicals.
