Food traceability for a pizzeria: what to keep and for how long
A pizzeria has to be able to say which supplier every ingredient came from and when it was delivered. That is Article 18 of retained Regulation (EC) 178/2002. Because you sell to the final consumer, you do not have to trace your customers. In practice: keep delivery notes, keep labels or batch numbers, and label anything you decant.
What the rule actually asks for
The principle is “one step back, one step forward”: every business knows its supplier and its customer. For a restaurant, the step forward is the consumer, who does not need to be identified. What is left is the step back, plus enough internal record-keeping to work out, if a product is recalled, what was used and when.
What to keep, and for how long
| Product | Keep | Common practice |
|---|---|---|
| Mozzarella, cured meats, fresh produce | Delivery note plus label or photo with the batch number | Use-by date plus 6 months |
| Flour, tinned tomatoes, oil | Invoice or delivery note, batch number | Several years for long-life products |
| Frozen food | Delivery note, label | Best-before date plus 6 months |
| Made in-house (sauce, cooked toppings) | Label: product, date made, use-by you set | Until used or thrown away |
Regulation (EC) 178/2002, Article 18, as retained in UK law. The regulation sets no fixed period; these are working rules of thumb.
The simplest method is a photo: snap the label when you open a case and keep the photos in a folder per month. It beats a shoebox of peeled-off labels nobody will ever read.
The labels you make yourself
This is where pizzerias most often fall short. Once a product leaves its original packaging (drained mozzarella, decanted sauce, sliced ham), the manufacturer’s label no longer goes with it. The tub needs its own label with at least:
- the product name,
- the date it was opened or made,
- the new use-by date, set by you and written into your food safety plan,
- and, so you can act on a recall, the original batch number or a reference to the label photo.
For dough, write the flour batch in your mixing log. Flour recalls happen (mycotoxins, foreign bodies), and it is the only way to know which trays are affected.
Traceability and allergens
Keeping labels is also how you answer an allergic customer: the ingredients of a bought-in pesto or ’nduja are only on the packaging. See the allergen rules for takeaways.
Traceability is one of the first things checked on a visit: see what happens during a food hygiene inspection.