The Little Green Book of Food Traceability: Concepts and Challenges

The Little Green Book of Food Traceability purpose is to address a growing demand for information about food and feed traceability and it I is mainly focused on the fresh food. The objective of this book is to present the traceability concept, the actual process to trace, review the different types of traceability, its operation and benefits for the food chain. In the last few years, specifically since the event of mad cow disease (BSE) in 2005, the international community has demanded more controls over the food production processes from the agro-industrial sector. The production practices, which are common for industrialized products started to migrate at faster speed the produce sector. The need for new controls has increased even more when new attributes, such as organic, GM-Free and others started to be associated with food products. Traceability became more important to be able to distinguishes such properties through naked eye. Traceability is no longer a marketing trend, but a reality imposed by the consumer base. This is trend is linked to food safety as food comes from further away than before, crossing borders, cultures and different production standards.