Section 27Sec./Art. 27

Traceability. Traceability shall be established for foods at relevant stages of production, post harvest handling, processing or distribution, when needed to ensure compliance with food safety requirements. The rule on traceability shall also cover production inputs such as feeds, food additives, ingredients, packaging materials and other substances expected to be incorporated into a food or food product. To ensure traceability, food business operators are required to:

(a) Be able to identify any person or company from whom they have been supplied with:

(1) Food;

(2) A food-producing animal;

(3) Production chemicals as pesticides and drugs; and

(4) Production, post harvest handling and processing inputs such as feeds, food additives, food ingredients, packaging materials, or any substance expected to be incorporated into food or food product.

(b) Establish and implement systems and procedures which allow the above information to be available to the regulatory authorities on demand; and

(c) Establish systems and procedures to identify the other businesses to which their products have been supplied. This information shall be made available to the regulatory authorities upon demand.

Traceability in case of food-borne disease outbreak shall be established by the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the DOH.