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TRACES
TRACES — the TRAde Control and Expert System — is the European Commission’s multilingual online platform for managing the sanitary and phytosanitary certification required for the import of animals, animal products, food and feed of non-animal origin, and plants into the EU, as well as for certain intra-EU trade and EU exports. It is a central tool for the digital handling of official certificates and documents in the EU’s food safety, animal health and plant health framework.
TRACES is used to generate, submit and process a wide range of official documents electronically, including those linked to imports, intra-EU trade, exports, and the movement of specific regulated goods. Its purpose is to improve traceability, support official controls, and streamline communication between operators, competent authorities, border control posts and other public bodies. By digitising these procedures, TRACES helps reduce paperwork, increase transparency and accelerate administrative processing.
A key feature of the system is its integration with other control and customs processes. The Commission highlights TRACES as an important element of the EU’s wider control architecture, including links to border control procedures, official certification, and data exchange with national administrations. This makes it a strategic infrastructure for the implementation of EU sanitary and phytosanitary legislation across the internal market and at the Union’s external borders.
TRACES is therefore more than a database: it is a core operational platform that connects risk management, certification, traceability and official controls in a single digital environment. In practice, it supports the safe circulation of regulated goods while helping the EU enforce its rules on animal health, plant health and food safety in a consistent and coordinated way.
Legal foundations
In response to the 1997 outbreak of classic swine fever in Europe, the European Parliament passed Resolution A5-396/2000 urging the European Commission to enhance the traceability of animal movements within the single market.
Consequently, a new computerised system was set up that integrated the functions of the ANIMO and SHIFT systems into a single architecture based on the European Commission adopted Commission Decision 2003/24/EC.
Subsequently, the new system was named “Traces” by Commission Decision 2003/623/EC.
TRACES is subject to the rules and requirements laid down by:
The TRACES system is managed by the TRACES – IMSOC team, Unit G.4 – Official controls of DG SANTE.
TRACES is used to generate, submit and process a wide range of official documents electronically, including those linked to imports, intra-EU trade, exports, and the movement of specific regulated goods. Its purpose is to improve traceability, support official controls, and streamline communication between operators, competent authorities, border control posts and other public bodies. By digitising these procedures, TRACES helps reduce paperwork, increase transparency and accelerate administrative processing.
A key feature of the system is its integration with other control and customs processes. The Commission highlights TRACES as an important element of the EU’s wider control architecture, including links to border control procedures, official certification, and data exchange with national administrations. This makes it a strategic infrastructure for the implementation of EU sanitary and phytosanitary legislation across the internal market and at the Union’s external borders.
TRACES is therefore more than a database: it is a core operational platform that connects risk management, certification, traceability and official controls in a single digital environment. In practice, it supports the safe circulation of regulated goods while helping the EU enforce its rules on animal health, plant health and food safety in a consistent and coordinated way.
Legal foundations
In response to the 1997 outbreak of classic swine fever in Europe, the European Parliament passed Resolution A5-396/2000 urging the European Commission to enhance the traceability of animal movements within the single market.
Consequently, a new computerised system was set up that integrated the functions of the ANIMO and SHIFT systems into a single architecture based on the European Commission adopted Commission Decision 2003/24/EC.
Subsequently, the new system was named “Traces” by Commission Decision 2003/623/EC.
TRACES is subject to the rules and requirements laid down by:
- Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Official Controls Regulation) – which states that TRACES is integrated as one of the components of the Information Management System for Official Controls (IMSOC).
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 (IMSOC Regulation) - which lays down rules for the functioning of the information management system for official controls and its system components (TRACES, iRASFF, ADIS, EUROPHYT).
The TRACES system is managed by the TRACES – IMSOC team, Unit G.4 – Official controls of DG SANTE.
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