How Does Traceability Work When Products Are Made From a Blend of Raw Materials?

Raw materials traceability is required by both the US “Forced Labor Ban” of 2022 and the EU Deforestation Regulation of 2023. But what if your company buys raw material blends that come from many sources–is it possible to trace them to the farms and the mines where the original materials originated?

The short answer is yes: traceability for blends not only is possible, but has been mandated for decades by food and pharmaceutical safety regulations. Under these established traceability protocols, a finished product consists of all of the raw materials that were blended together to make it. If contamination is discovered at one supplier, then all of the finished goods that could include raw materials from that facility are tainted and removed from the market.

The same applies to the new regulations around forced labor and deforestation: if a single non-compliant supplier contributes to a large batch of raw materials, then all finished products made with that batch are tainted and non-compliant. The good news is that companies only have to collect traceability data in aggregate for all of the products made with the same batch. The bad news is that a single non-compliant supplier puts a large batch of finished goods at risk.

For companies new to traceability, large batch traceability is the first step. Companies with established traceability programs are able to track smaller batches of raw materials through procurement, thus the risks associated with any one supplier can be isolated to fewer finished products.

Interested in learning more about how to implement traceability in the new era of end-to-end supply chain management? Get in touch with the experts at Sourcemap to find out more.