Templates and records · HACCP
Traceability record for incoming and outgoing goods
The legal minimum for every food business: knowing where each consignment came from and who it was delivered to, so it can be withdrawn if necessary.
In one sentence
The traceability record identifies, for each consignment in and out, the supplier or customer, the product, the quantity, the batch and the date, because Article 18 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 requires every food business operator to be able to identify who supplied each food to it and to whom it supplied it, and to make that information available to the authorities.
- Type of information
- Mandatory record Mandatory record under Article 18 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002
- Who fills it in
- Goods-in, production and dispatch Each stage records its part; quality checks that the chain is complete
- When
- At every receipt and every dispatch And in production, if internal traceability is kept
- How long it is kept
- An appropriate period The Regulation sets no period; it is sensible to cover at least the shelf life of the product, with a margin to respond to a withdrawal or to the authorities.
What the standard requires
What HACCP demands and what it leaves to your judgement
The Regulation requires one step back and one step forward: identifying the suppliers of each food, ingredient or packaging intended to be incorporated, and the businesses to which products have been supplied. The information must be available when the authorities request it.
For food of animal origin, Implementing Regulation (EU) 931/2011 specifies the data: description, volume or quantity, name and address of the supplier and of the consignee, batch reference and date of dispatch.
Internal traceability — which raw material batches go into each product batch — is not required by the general Regulation, but without it a withdrawal affects far more product than necessary. IFS Food and BRCGS do require it and ask for it to be tested every year.
Structure
Fields the template should include
- Date in or out
- Product and description
- Quantity or volume
- Batch
- Supplier or customer, with name and address
- Reference document: delivery note, invoice
- Raw material batches used in each product batch, if internal traceability is kept
Example
Example: goods in and out at a fictitious cured meats factory
Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| In | 2 October 2026 · fresh pork shoulder · 480 kg · batch PC-1002 · Valley Meats (fictitious) · delivery note 5521 |
| Production | Chorizo batch CH-26-275 made with PC-1002 and paprika batch PI-330 |
| Out 1 | 20 October · chorizo 250 g · 600 units · batch CH-26-275 · Seaside Supermarkets (fictitious) · delivery note 9030 |
| Out 2 | 21 October · 240 units · same batch · own shop |
| Remaining | 160 units in the warehouse |
At the audit
Mistakes auditors commonly flag
- Incoming delivery notes without the supplier's batch number.
- Food-contact packaging with no record.
- Sales to other operators with no record of the customer or batch.
- The information exists but takes days to pull together.
- Rework that mixes batches without any record.
In Kimobox
How this record is kept in Kimobox
- 1Batches are linked from raw material to delivery, in both directions.
- 2If the ERP owns the batch and the dispatch, Kimobox consumes that data and attaches the quality records to it.
- 3Backward and forward queries return suppliers and customers in minutes.
- 4The mock recall produces the list of those affected from the same data.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before getting started
Do I have to record end consumers?
No. Article 18 refers to the businesses supplied; sales to the final consumer do not require them to be identified.
Is internal traceability mandatory?
The general Regulation requires one step back and one step forward. Internal traceability between batches is not generally mandatory, but it is required by private standards, and it is what keeps a withdrawal narrowly targeted.
What happens if a food I have sold is not safe?
Article 19 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 requires it to be withdrawn, the competent authority informed and, if it has reached consumers, the consumers informed. The traceability record is what lets you do this quickly.
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Sources
Where each figure comes from
References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.
- Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law (Articles 18 and 19) EUR-Lex · 28 January 2002
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 931/2011 on traceability requirements for food of animal origin EUR-Lex · 19 September 2011