Traceability

Traceability is the ability to follow a product and its ingredients forward and backward through every stage of sourcing, manufacturing, testing and distribution.

It rests on batch and lot numbers, supplier records, batch manufacturing records and laboratory reports that are all linked by the same identifiers. A traceable system can answer where the hemp in a given bottle was grown, which extract lot it came from, when it was made and what it tested at. It is the foundation of any recall, because it defines which units are affected.

For a reader, traceability shows up as a batch number on the package that leads to a certificate of analysis for the same batch. Products with no batch number, or with certificates that cannot be matched to a batch, are effectively untraceable from the outside. Federal hemp rules require growers to document and test their crop, which provides the first link in the chain, but the links through extraction and manufacturing depend on each company's own records.