In a Ready-to-Eat (RTE) facility, you’re working with foods that consumers eat without any cooking step to eliminate hazards. That makes traceability one of your strongest food safety controls. A well-designed traceability system ensures you can track every ingredient backward (where it came from) and every finished product forward (where it went).

In an RTE environment, strong traceability isn’t just a regulatory requirement; it protects your customers, your brand, and your ability to respond quickly during a recall.

In this blog, we discuss the step-by-step on how to set up traceability programs.

Step-By-Step Traceability Process

Step 1: Assign Lot Codes to Everything to Trace

Every ingredient, packaging item, and finished product must have a clear, consistent lot code. In RTE foods, this is critical because any contamination event must be narrowed down quickly. Your lot codes should be easy for staff to read, apply, and verify, especially during busy shifts.

Step 2: Capture Information at Every Key Point (Every Step)

Traceability relies on capturing data, not guessing later. Record:

• lot codes of incoming ingredients
• supplier information
• production date and batch number
• equipment or production line used
• packaging date and shift
• where each finished product was shipped

In RTE operations, this level of detail ensures you can isolate the affected product within minutes — not hours.

Step 3: Use Simple, Consistent Documentation to Trace Your Products

Your system can be digital or paper-based, but it must be easy for employees to complete and easy for auditors or inspectors to follow. Complex forms often lead to missing data, which can slow you down during an investigation or recall. A simple “one up, one down” format works well:

• One step back: where ingredients came from
• One step forward: where finished products went

Step 4: Link Ingredients to Finished Products

This is where many food processing facilities struggle. Every batch should clearly show which ingredient lots went into which finished product lots. This lets you narrow down the scope of any recall. Without this link, you may end up recalling far more products than necessary or not recalling the actual hazardous products.

Be sure to consider rework and work in progress!

Step 5: Test Your System With Mock Recalls

A traceability system is only effective if it works under pressure. Run mock recalls regularly to test how fast you can trace a batch backward and forward. In RTE facilities, the goal is typically under two hours. If you have a challenge finding the products/ingredients or it takes too long to find the information, then something is wrong with your system.

Clients that we work with typically think there is nothing wrong with their traceability program until … they do the mock recall. If you haven’t conducted a mock recall before, please do so for your processes. Do not assume traceability is perfect.

Many common traceability mistakes can impact the traceability, including missed lot tracking, missed quantity, extra waste unrecorded, product used for tradeshow or sampling without recording etc.

Build A Traceability System that Works

Your traceability system should have the following components.

• Product Identification Procedure
• Product Withdrawal and Recall
• Record Keeping Log (From Receiving to Shipping, Including Waste and Sample Log)

If you do not have these components, feel free to contact me at 1-236-513-2488 or book a call at https://tidycal.com/sfpmconsulting/strategy-call  to discuss the best options for your case.

IAF BC Traceability Grant Support: 

Great news for BC food manufacturers: My name is Felicia Loo and I help many food manufacturers build and improve their food safety and traceability programs. Some of our clients build a simple food traceability program. Some of our clients embed their food traceability program with software applications.

The IAF BC Traceability Adoption Grants provide co-sharing grants to help BC food manufacturers adopt and implement a traceability program. As one of the IAF BC Recommended Qualified Food Safety Professionals, we can help you implement your traceability program.

Let us help you build and improve your food safety and traceability programs.

Want to know when the grant is open? Contact us to let us know. We will send you a reminder email when