Every auditor asks the same thing eventually: pick a finished batch, and show me where every ingredient came from and where every case went — now. Traceability is the one system you hope you never need for real, and the one an auditor is most likely to test on the day. Get the coding right underneath it and a four-hour recall becomes a ten-minute exercise.
One step forward, one step back
The legal baseline is simpler than it sounds. Under retained EU law — Regulation (EC) 178/2002 — every food business must be able to identify who supplied them and who they supplied. That's “one step back, one step forward.” You don't have to trace the whole chain from farm to fork; you have to trace your own two links, for every batch, and produce the records to the authorities on request.
Certification schemes then raise the bar. SALSA and BRCGS both want you to trace in both directions through your own process — from a raw-material batch forward to every finished product and customer it reached, and from a finished batch backward to every ingredient, pack and supplier that went into it — and to test that you can, on a clock, at least once a year.
Start at a finished batch. Work back through the batch record to every ingredient and packaging lot, and to the supplier and delivery each one came in on.
Start at a raw-material batch. Work forward to every production batch that used it, and on to every customer, order and despatch it left the building on.
Batch coding is what makes or breaks it
Traceability lives or dies on the codes. If a raw material arrives and gets a batch or lot reference the moment it's booked in, if that reference is captured on the batch record when it's used, and if the finished batch carries its own code onto the label and the despatch note, then a trace is just following a thread. If any of those links is a handwritten “whatever was open,” the thread snaps.
Three habits keep the chain intact:
- Code on intake. Every delivery gets a unique batch reference at goods-in, tied to the supplier, the date and the supplier's own lot number.
- Record on use. The batch record captures which specific ingredient and packaging batches went into each production run — not just the recipe, the actual lots.
- Code on despatch. The finished batch code goes on the pack and is captured against the customer order, so a forward trace reaches a named customer, not just “trade.”
The mock recall: a test, on a clock
A mock recall is a rehearsal. You pick a batch — or better, let someone else pick it — and prove you can identify and account for all the affected product within your target time, commonly four hours. It isn't only about speed; it's about completeness. The auditor wants to see that you found all of it, and that the quantities add up.
Mass balance: the check people forget
This is where paper systems come unstuck. Mass balance — quantity reconciliation — asks a blunt question: the batch of raw material you received weighed X; can you show X going out as product used, stock remaining and waste? If 200 kg came in and you can only account for 160 kg, your trace has a 40 kg hole, and the auditor won't sign it off. A good test reconciles the numbers, not just the paperwork trail.
Running a mock recall that actually proves something
A test the auditor will respect looks like this:
- Have someone independent pick the batch — a raw material for a forward trace, a finished product for a backward one.
- Start the clock and record it. The timing is part of the evidence.
- Identify every affected batch in both directions — ingredients and packaging in, finished product and customers out.
- Reconcile the quantities with mass balance, and note any gap you have to explain.
- Draft the notifications you'd actually send — customers, and where a health risk exists, the FSA and the public.
- Record the result, the time taken, and any weakness you found — a missing code, a slow step — as a corrective action.
- Repeat at least annually, and whenever a product, supplier or process changes.
Withdrawal or recall?
The test also rehearses a decision. A withdrawal pulls product back before it reaches the consumer — a wrong date code caught in a depot. A recall goes public and asks people who've already bought it to return or bin it, and is reserved for a genuine risk to health, most often an undeclared allergen. Knowing which one you're in, and who signs it off, is as important as the trace itself.
The bottom line
Traceability isn't a document you write once; it's a property of how tightly your batch codes are captured from intake to despatch. Get that right and the annual mock recall stops being a dreaded half-day and becomes a quick, confident proof — forward and back, quantities reconciled, report exported — that if the worst ever happened, you could act in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is “one step forward, one step back” traceability?
It's the legal minimum under Regulation (EC) 178/2002: you must be able to identify who supplied any material to you and who you supplied your finished product to. You don't have to trace the whole chain — but you must be able to do it for every batch, on request.
How quickly must a mock recall be completed?
Most certification schemes expect you to account for the affected product within a set time — commonly four hours — and to test the system at least annually and whenever the process changes. SALSA and BRCGS both require a documented, exercised traceability test.
What is mass balance in a traceability test?
Mass balance, or quantity reconciliation, checks that the amount of a raw-material batch received equals the amount used in production plus stock remaining plus waste. If the numbers don't reconcile, your trace has a gap the auditor won't accept.
What's the difference between a recall and a withdrawal?
A withdrawal removes affected product before it reaches the consumer. A recall goes further, asking consumers who've already bought it to return or dispose of it — usually with a public notice, and reserved for a risk to health such as an undeclared allergen.
Trace forward and back in seconds.
See how Prodara's Recall Simulation turns the annual mock recall into a quick, audit-ready exercise.