1. Traceability: definition

According to Le Petit Robert, traceability is "the possibility of identifying the origin and reconstructing the course of a product, from its production to its distribution".

Traceability has been brought back into the spotlight by recent epizootics: mad cow disease, the listeriosis epidemic, bird flu... But it's actually a common, even daily, concern.

Within the company, requirements can be critical: we need to be able to apportion responsibility if a product causes damage...