Food safety
🔗 Traceability: one step back, one step forward
You must be able to say where food came from and where it went. What records make that possible.
This is general guidance. Food-safety rules can change — always verify the current requirements with your national food-safety authority ↗. The operator remains responsible for compliance; we accept no liability for this information.
Traceability means you can show, for any product, which supplier it came from and — if you sell on to other businesses — where it went. It’s the "one step back, one step forward" principle, and it’s what makes a recall possible if something turns out to be unsafe.
What to keep
- Delivery notes and invoices linking products to suppliers
- Batch or lot references where relevant
- Records of what you supplied to other businesses (not usually required for direct-to-consumer sales)
If a product has to be withdrawn or recalled, you must also notify the authority and, if it reached consumers, inform them — for example with a notice in the shop or on your website.
Traceability under Regulation (EC) 178/2002.