Abstract
In this paper, we propose a generic data model for food traceability. We discuss the characteristics of our model with respect both to tracing and tracking requirements, and to quality control. Since traceability is based on reliable and faithful exchange of documents among the units of the supply chain, we also consider how electronic business-to-business standards, such as ebXML, can help support data homogeneity as well as system interoperability. Finally, we highlight how the implementation effort can be accordingly reduced.