Traceability and Mass Balance in Food Safety Systems

A core element of a Food Safety plan is having good traceability systems through your supply chain, production systems and out to final customers. Having a traceability procedure now makes up part of  BRCGS for Food Safety issue 9. Other key benefits of traceability systems include: food safety and recall management, regulatory compliance, consumer trust and transparency, supply chain efficiency and fraud prevention. Benefits of mass balance include: process control and optimization, waste reduction, cost management, verification of claims and quality assurance.

Roles that would benefit from attending the training are new technical staff from within organisations, but also staff from manufacturing (production managers, process engineers, line supervisors), purchasing, new product development, quality assurance, supply chain, compliance or warehouse managers.

This live, interactive online course will be delivered over the course of half a day (0900 - 1300 hours approx), participants will be sent log in details for a Microsoft Teams session. 

This course covers the importance of traceability and mass balance in food safety management systems.  It identifies the requirements in global food safety standards and legal frameworks, including EU Regulation 178/2002, FDA Final Rule, ISO 22000, IFS Food. The course talks through case study examples and practical application of interpreting the requirements.

Learning outcomes:

Session 1: Traceability

• Understand why traceability is important in food safety and quality.
• Define what traceability is and its role in the supply chain.
• Identify regulatory and standard requirements for traceability.
• Explore real-world case studies (e.g., horsemeat scandal, allergen incidents).
• Learn about traceability systems (one step back/forward, internal traceability).
• Understand traceability in standards like BRCGS, ISO 22000, IFS, and Global G.A.P.
• Apply traceability through practical exercises.
• Use root cause analysis tools (e.g., Fishbone, 5 Whys, Bowtie) to investigate traceability failures.

Session 2: Mass Balance

• Understand why mass balance is necessary in food production.
• Define mass balance and its role in verifying traceability and claims.
• Learn about mass balance requirements in standards (e.g., BRCGS, IFS).
• Identify factors affecting mass balance in the supply chain.
• Explore ethical, environmental, and sustainability claims and how mass balance supports them.
• Conduct mass balance exercises to verify product integrity and compliance.