Food traceability is an essential tool through which companies guarantee food security and achieve competitive market advantages. European regulations impose food operators to implement traceability, and consumers are increasingly demanding additional information on food origin and characteristics. Thus, it is crucial for firms figure out the appropriate level of traceability to implement. The main goal of this work is to investigate the relationship between traceability implementation and its consequences on firms’ operations. The main research question is if the level of traceability influences or not perceived benefits, costs, and difficulties in its implementation. On this baseline, a survey is conducted to empirically test the theoretical construct. The target of the investigation is the Italian poultry meat supply chain. With the support of UNAITALIA association (The National Union of meat and egg supply chains), it as been possible to in-Depth analyse the structure and operation of this supply chain. The industry is characterised by a high level of vertical integration and, since 2004, has implemented a voluntary labelling system in order to track and trace additional information of products. Processing industries are the leaders of the supply chain, able to influence all operators working upstream and downstream. Therefore, through a questionnaire the supply chain leader firms have been interviewed. The sample consisted of nine firms while respondents were eight. Despite the population selected is small, it represents over 90% of poultry meat produced in Italy. Findings indicate that firms implement a Medium and Deep level of traceability. These two groups show a significant difference in terms of difficulties in implementing traceability. Conversely, no significant difference is found in relation to costs and benefits. In general firms with a lower level of traceability perceive all aspects investigated (benefits, costs, and difficulties of traceability implementation) as having a greater impact on their operations compared to Deep traceability group. Moreover, firms with lower traceability showed more significant difficulties in implanting the EC Reg. No. 1169/2011 on food labelling into force since May 2015. The main limitation of the survey is the small sample due to the peculiar configuration of the industry and the limitation to a single food supply chain. Nevertheless, through a punctual measure of the traceability level in the supply chain, the research contributes to reduce the existing gap in the literature. On a practical side, it explores for the first time how traceability impact firms of the poultry supply chain. Future development of the analysis should focus on the impact of traceability practices on consumers’ satisfaction and willingness to pay for extra information on food products.