The first international definition of traceability has been made in ISO 8402 standard from 1987 like being

"the ability to retrieve history, use or location of an entity through her identifiers". Traceability as the supply chain process can be conducted in two distinct directions: forward or trace lineage tracking (the ability to locate a product based on specific criteria, in any point would find him on the chain) and tracing-back or the ascending traceability (the ability to identify the origin and characteristics of a product based on established criteria unitary in all points on supply chain. To adopt a comprehensive and integrated concept of traceability, EU law takes into account all aspects of the production chain: processing, transport and distribution. In all links of this chain, the legal responsibility to ensure product safety lies with the manufacturer. At European level, there are two major laws governing traceability: Directive (EC) 2001/95 on General Product Safety and Regulation (EC) no. 178/2002, on the General Food Law, applied from 15 January 2004 and 1 January 2005 all EU countries. Provisions of Community Regulation no. 178/2002 are taken completely by Law no. 150/14.05.2004 governing food safety obligations Romanian agents. These regulations provide permanent responsibility of each operator and the ability to draw "a step backward and a step forward." Each operator must be able to identify the process at any time who (the person) has provided and what has provided and by whom. Each operator is responsible to provide information requested by the authorities in this respect.
Ensuring traceability process takes place in four stages: identify batches of products that were subject to the same production processes (and /or processing). Recording information on the production, on paper and on electronic support, Establishing links between information (each of the commercial agent who is in the next chain, must be able to justify the link between batches of documents, suppliers and clients) Economic Agent from Agricultural Manufacturing Industry Distributor Points of Sale.

 Communication - each operator in the chain communicate the following particulars of the consignments to enable the latter to apply principles of traceability.