The ease with which the origin or developmental history of something can be found by investigation — the ability to trace a food, ingredient, or animal through all stages of production, processing, and distribution. Traceability is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions (notably the EU‘s ‘one step back, one step forward‘ rule) and the backbone of recall effectiveness: when contamination is found, traceability systems identify the implicated lots and where they went within hours. Lot coding, barcodes, and increasingly blockchain records create the chain; mock recalls test it. Without traceability, a localised fault becomes an untargetable crisis.