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Food carries obligations that attach before a single unit sells: facility registration, traceability, and a label that is legally a specification rather than packaging design. The label is where most small producers get stopped, because it is checked and it is specific.
Ingredient order, allergen declaration, net quantity, nutrition panel, and the name and address of a responsible party are all mandated with specific formats. Getting one wrong means a reprint at best and a recall at worst.
Most jurisdictions require the facility that makes or handles the food to be registered, including foreign facilities exporting in. It is a prerequisite, not a formality, and it cannot be arranged retroactively.
The common standard is knowing your immediate supplier and your immediate customer for every lot. That is what makes a recall bounded instead of total — the brands that cannot trace a lot recall everything.
Major grocers require third-party audit certification — BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000 — beyond any legal minimum. Getting certified takes months and cannot be started when the buyer asks.