Relating the biotracing concept to practices in food safety

Biotracing, a new method developed to assist with food chain management and to control food safety, is presented to highlight practical considerations, including logistic issues for its implementation. The main differences between traceability and biotracing and between predictive microbiology and biotracing are explained and examples of situations in which biotracing could be of real help are listed (foodborne outbreaks, liability issues, HACCP, risk evaluation and decision making, education and training). Indications on how to access and interrogate two prototype models, called SimpleTrace and SimpleMatch, as well as some other Bayesian networks, are given to encourage using of biotracing, while operational biotracing is illustrated by an agent based model called AgentChain. The main types of inferences, which point to sources that generate potential problems within a particular food chain, are revealed. Biotracing is strongly recommended for introduction into continuous operations that include in line data collection, and can be operated, alongside existing safety systems, without additional burden.

► Practical aspects encourage use of biotracing for additional food safety management. ► Computational models SimpleTrace and SimpleMatch illustrate the biotracing concept. ► Biotracing allows avoiding temporary closures of food chain or product recalls. ► Biotracing is recommended for operations that include in line data collection.