Follow the food. Preserve the record.
Source-backed reporting and analysis connected to the companies, capabilities, authorities, and operating domains it affects.
The GS1 Global Traceability Standard organizes Critical Tracking Events and Key Data Elements around what, where, when, why, and who. Interoperable event history can support an investigation without deciding hazard, scope, notification, or recall disposition.
The Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene include traceability among prerequisite practices that establish the operating foundation for HACCP. Traceability can support recall and investigation, but its records do not replace hazard analysis, significant-hazard decisions, or control at a critical control point.
ISO 22000 specifies requirements for a food-safety management system across the food chain and incorporates HACCP principles. It does not replace the separate lot, event, data-exchange, or jurisdiction-specific records used to trace food.
The standard frames traceability as a flexible technical tool for identified objectives across the feed and food chain—not as one universal data model.
Article 18 requires food and feed businesses in scope to identify suppliers and business recipients and make that information available to authorities on demand. That is a maintained evidence boundary, not proof of full-chain genealogy.
The August 2025 proposal sought 30 additional months for coordination across the food chain and explicitly said the agency did not intend to amend the final rule's requirements.
The updated system-verification procedure gives Canadian operators a clear reason to link receiving, storage, complaints, control, and traceability evidence without collapsing the requirements.
EPCIS can be a powerful exchange option, but FDA says it is not required for compliance or for submitting traceability data to the agency.
GS1's current standard supports sensor, certification, and measured-concentration context, raising stronger questions about units, source quality, and the boundary between an event and a safety conclusion.
CFIA's current guidance combines one-step records with two-year retention, Canadian accessibility, language, and file-production expectations that global teams must model explicitly.
