Guidance: Food traceability for businesses

Food law in Great Britain (GB) is made up of domestic law and assimilated law. Food law in Northern Ireland (NI) is made up domestic law and EU law. For the purposes of this overview a reference to “General Food Law” is assimilated regulation 178/2002 as it applies to England and Wales and to EU regulation EC 178/2002 as it applies to NI. Where there are differences between the application of the law in England, Wales or NI, these will be highlighted.

For information on Food Law in Scotland please visit Food Standards Scotland

Traceability is the ability to track a food product and its ingredients through the supply chain from production, processing and distribution to the final point of sale. It helps businesses and regulators identify where food has come from, where it has gone, and which products may be affected during a food safety incident. This page focuses on food, but there are also specific traceability requirements for feed, food producing animals and substances intended for use in food or feed.

Traceability helps businesses demonstrate compliance with food law and protect consumers, ensuring food is safe and what it says it is by:

Food moves through several supply chain stages before reaching the consumer, including:

Information about the food should be available at each stage to help identify where it came from and where it was sent on to. Food placed on the market must be labelled or identified in a way that supports traceability.

Traceability requirements for Food Businesses