Producing safe and high-quality food is a prerequisite to ensure consumer health and successful domestic and international trade, and is critical to the sustainable development of national agricultural resources.
Systems to trace food or feed products through specified stages of production, processing, and distribution play a key role in assuring food safety. Analytical techniques that enable the provenance of food to be determined provide an independent means of verifying traceability systems and also help to prove product authenticity, to combat fraudulent practices and to control adulteration, which are important issues for economic, religious, or cultural reasons.
Proof of provenance has become an important topic in the context of food safety, food quality, and consumer protection in accordance with national legislation and international standards and guidelines.