Trade term
The traceability lot, and how far back it reaches
Food law asks every business to know its immediate supplier and its immediate customer, which is one step in each direction and no further. A lot code satisfies that. It is not the same as knowing which trees the fruit came from, and buyers routinely assume that it is.
The figures
| Legal requirement | One step back and one step forward |
|---|---|
| What a lot code identifies | A batch as defined by the business that created it |
| What it does not identify | A plot, a tree or a picking day, unless stated |
What it changes on an order
You need origin at plot level
Ask for it as a separate term. A lot code will be offered and it does not answer the question.
You are handling a withdrawal
The lot is the unit that moves, so how widely it was defined decides how much fruit you pull.
You are auditing a supplier
Ask how a lot is built. One spanning a week and three plots is legal, and a very different object from one built per picking.
What this note does not settle
- We do not yet issue a lot prefix. It is pending on every planting record, so we cannot promise a lot structure today.
- This note describes the legal minimum. Any tighter traceability is a commercial arrangement between the parties.
The law asks for one step back and one step forward
European food law requires every business to identify who supplied it and to whom it supplied, and to hand that information to the authorities on demand. One step in each direction. That is the whole of the obligation, and a great deal of what buyers picture when they say traceability, plot records, picking dates, treatment logs, sits above the legal floor as something you negotiate rather than something you invoke.
What the package must carry is separate and narrower. The citrus marketing standard puts the packer or dispatcher, the origin, the class and the size on the label, which lets a receiving team identify goods without opening a file. A lot code links that box back to the records behind it. Whether the code is worth anything depends entirely on what those records contain.
Nobody defines how much fruit a lot is
Here is the part that decides what a problem costs you. Lot size is set by the seller. One supplier calls a lot a single morning off a single plot; another calls it a week of mixed intake through one packing line, and both are within the rules. On the day something has to be withdrawn, that definition decides whether you are pulling two pallets or a fortnight of deliveries.
Ask what a lot means in the packhouse you are buying from, and ask while the question is still theoretical. Ask whether a lot can be tied back to a named plot, and whether mixed lots ever share a pallet. Our plot records carry a field for the lot prefix each planting would use, and every one of those fields is still empty, which is the honest state of it rather than a system already running.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.