Traceability terms, in plain English.
The vocabulary auditors, regulators, and buyers use — defined the way a production floor actually experiences it.
Lot (batch lot)
A quantity of material or product treated as one unit for quality and traceability - received together, tested together, and recalled together. Everything in LotThread hangs off a lot.
Lot code
The identifier stamped on a lot. Internal lot codes are yours; supplier lot codes come from your vendor and are the link back one step in the supply chain.
Lot genealogy
The family tree of a product: which material lots went into which batches, which finished lots came out, and where they shipped. Forward and backward tracing walk this tree.
One-up, one-down traceability
The baseline legal expectation in most food regulation: know where each input came from (one up) and where each output went (one down). Genealogy tracing generalizes this across every step.
FSMA 204 (Food Traceability Rule)
The FDA rule requiring extra traceability records for foods on the Food Traceability List, organized as Critical Tracking Events with Key Data Elements, retrievable within 24 hours.
CTE (Critical Tracking Event)
An FSMA-204 event where traceability data must be captured: receiving, transformation (production), and shipping are the ones most producers handle daily.
KDE (Key Data Element)
The specific facts FSMA 204 requires for each Critical Tracking Event - lot codes, quantities, locations, dates, and partner identifiers.
HACCP
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points - the food-safety planning system behind most quality programs. Traceability records are the evidence trail your HACCP plan relies on.
COA (Certificate of Analysis)
A supplier document certifying a lot meets spec. Receiving workflows often block approval until the COA is on file.
Quarantine / hold / release
The disposition states of a lot. New receipts sit in quarantine until inspected; holds freeze suspect inventory; release clears material or finished goods for use or sale.
Mock recall
A timed drill: pick a lot, trace everything it touched, and produce the contact list - proof for auditors that a real recall would work. GFSI schemes expect at least one a year.
Recall scope
Everything a suspect lot could have affected: batches that consumed it, finished lots from those batches, and the customers who received them.
Traceability lot code (TLC)
Under FSMA 204, the identifier assigned when food is initially packed or transformed, carried through subsequent records so regulators can follow the product.
Rework
Feeding finished product back into production as an input. A traceability system must model it or tracing silently breaks.
Best-by / expiration tracking
Date-driven inventory control: flag lots approaching expiry, block expired material from production, and rotate stock first-expiring-first-out.
Audit-ready records
Records a third-party auditor can use without cleanup: complete, timestamped, attributable to a person, and exportable on demand.