---
id: KB-AL-015
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/food-and-beverage/animal-feed-and-what-travels-with-it
idioma: en
categoria: sector-alimentacion
subcategoria: animal
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-AL-010, KB-AL-011]
citadoPor: [KB-AL-018, KB-AL-023]
---

# Animal feed and what travels with it

_What goes in the trough ends up in the food chain, which is why its paperwork looks more like food than raw material._

**Responde a:** animal feed documentation · what accompanies a feed raw material batch · feed traceability · asked for paperwork on the feed I use

Making feed, distributing it or simply buying it for your animals places your company inside the food chain, even if the final product is two links away. That is why the documentation requested looks so much like food documentation: in practice, that is what it is.

## What travels with each batch

| Element | What it proves | Who issues it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Product identification and its batch | Exactly what it is and from which production run | The manufacturer |
| Composition and raw materials | What it contains | The manufacturer, on the label or spec |
| Origin of the raw materials | Where each component comes from | Requested backwards, supplier by supplier |
| The period's analyses | That what must be controlled is controlled | The lab, in-house or external |
| Transport document | Who moved it and under what conditions | The haulier |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The overlooked point that decides an investigation is transport: **a tanker or lorry that previously carried something else can contaminate the whole batch**. So what you keep is not only what arrived, but what it arrived in and what that vehicle carried before. It is information the haulier holds and nobody asks for until it is needed — and by then it cannot be reconstructed, because the lorry has made fifteen more trips.

## What to hold per batch

1. **Docket with batch and quantity, tied to the silo or store it entered** — Without that, the batch dissolves the moment it is unloaded.
2. **The product spec in force that day** — If the maker changes the formula, the spec changes.
3. **Evidence of transport cleaning, where applicable** — It is what gets asked for in an alert and is rarely kept.
4. **And which animals or production batch it went to** — It is the link to whatever leaves the farm.

> [!WARNING]
> What surprises those who only buy feed: **if there is an alert one day, the question does not go to the manufacturer, it comes to you**. Whoever must say which batch came in, when and which animals it went to is whoever used it, not whoever produced it. And that answer counts in hours or not at all — by then the product has moved on. Which is why noting the batch at unloading, a seemingly minor formality, is the piece holding everything else up.

## If you also manufacture or blend

**En corto**

- Every blend carries the documentation of everything inside it.
- A supplier swap over a stock shortage changes that batch's composition.
- And what you produce for third parties carries your label: you answer for what it says.

> [!NOTE]
> Which records are compulsory, what must appear on the label and which controls apply to each product type is set by animal feed regulations and your region. **Your adviser or vet confirms that**; here it is about being able to follow the batch backwards and forwards.

**Is the delivery note enough as traceability?**

It is the basis, if it carries a batch. Without one it is a delivery slip.

**What if I mix two batches in the same silo?**

Record it: from then on what is inside is both.

**How long to keep these records?**

Longer than the animal or the product that came out of there.

## Ejemplos

**A farm receives an alert about a raw material and never noted the batch at unloading.**

- Records batch and silo on every unload, and which animals it went to

→ The next query is answered within the hour, which is the window where an answer counts.

**Raw materials arrive without their documentation.**

- Checks what is missing before accepting intake

→ The gap shows on receipt.

**A client asks for the traceability of a delivered consignment.**

- Checks that outbound movement's file

→ You answer per consignment.

**Raw materials from several origins are mixed.**

- Records what went into each batch produced

→ The backward journey is complete.

**A supplier certificate expires with material in the silo.**

- Records validity on receipt

→ The warning arrives before producing with it.

**A batch must be flagged and nobody knows which farms received it.**

- Checks what went out and where

→ Those affected are warned.