Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law
Article 18 establishes traceability across stages of production, processing, and distribution and requires operators to identify suppliers and business recipients and make information available to competent authorities on demand.
What the authority record establishes
Article 18 establishes traceability across stages of production, processing, and distribution and requires operators to identify suppliers and business recipients and make information available to competent authorities on demand.
Binding EU regulation within scope
The exact official title, issuing body, jurisdiction, version or application record, and linked source define the scope of this page. Readers should not transfer the authority's status to a commercial product or infer transaction-, patient-, system-, site-, or organization-specific applicability from this summary.
Why it matters to this market
EU one-step identification and U.S. lot-event requirements can coexist in one enterprise while requiring distinct legal mappings, response formats, and retained records.
Affected operating stages
- Supplier Identification
- Product Identification
- Recipient Identification
- Labeling And Information
- Authority Availability
- Withdrawal And Recall
Capabilities to examine
Supplier Facility And Trading-Partner Master Data
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for supplier facility and trading-partner master data.
Item Product Location And Party Identification
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for item product location and party identification.
Receiving Shipping And Distribution Event Capture
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for receiving shipping and distribution event capture.
Recall Scope Analysis Notification And Disposition
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for recall scope analysis notification and disposition.
Consumer Product Provenance And Transparency
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for consumer product provenance and transparency.
Affected buyer audiences
- EU food and feed operators
- importers manufacturers and distributors
- retail and foodservice operators
- regulatory and technology teams
Implementation questions
- Which entities, products, populations, transactions, systems, sites, or jurisdictions are actually within scope?
- What is binding, what is guidance, and what is a technical or consensus standard?
- Which publication, adoption, effective, application, transition, and enforcement dates differ?
- Who owns legal, clinical, quality, regulatory, policy, or operational interpretation?
- How will a source revision affect open work and historical decisions?
Interpretation boundary
The publication does not determine operator status, product scope, national enforcement, or whether a particular record set satisfies EU law.