The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) are in the final stages of developing a National Agricultural Traceability Strategy and Implementation Plan. The plan covers all agricultural sectors and includes developing traceability for multiple purposes, such as food safety, market access and biosecurity. DPIRD are working closely with DAFF in ensuring that future traceability requirements are compatible with Western Australian production systems.
What is traceability?
Traceability can have a variety of meanings to different people and groups. Simply, traceability is the ability to follow something from its place of origin to its final destination, with information on all the stops in between. The National Traceability Framework: Enhancing Australia’s world-class agricultural traceability systems, refers to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand definition of traceability; that is ‘the ability to track any food/fibre through all stages of production, processing and distribution (including importation and at retail)’ (FSANZ 2017). However this definition is specific to food. The Plant and Plant Product Traceability Project encompasses all commercially produced plant and plant products.
Importance of traceability
Drivers of plant and plant product traceability include food safety, provenance, biosecurity, market access and marketability. Poor traceability can lead to broader impacts during food safety or biosecurity incidences. If it is unclear where a biosecurity or food safety threat originated from, more of the industry and/or supply chain could be impacted. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recognises there are several voluntary and regulatory traceability requirements for different industries. The Project is focused on ensuring that all commercial plant and plant product industries are better prepared for future traceability requirements through the lens of traceability in the event of a biosecurity incident response.
Current activities
- Stakeholder Reference Group: The Plant and Plant Product Traceability Stakeholder Reference Group has representatives from the major WA plant industries and was established to provide advice to the Project with industry perspective.
- Testing Traceability Systems Grant Program.
- Targeted industry consultation to measure commodity-specific supply chain interactions and assess the ability for coordinated tracing in a biosecurity incident response.
Further information
If you would like any additional information on the Plant and Plant Product Traceability Project, please email traceability@dpird.wa.gov.au