An introduction to biotracing in food chain systems

Biotracing involves the integration of food chain expertise, food safety information, rapid detection methods and mathematical models to give an operational system that supports decision making in relation to the origins of food borne hazards. Biotracing offers immediate and strategic benefits and aims to drive improved food safety. Biotracing is related to other schemes for food safety and security but specifically highlights strong inferential analyses to develop posterior information about potential sources of food safety problems. We point to recent scientific developments that have contributed to a progressive view of biotracing.