As a software engineer, I started a food marketplace startup in Brazil (http://liderfood.com.br/en) and the black market was much larger than we could ever imagine.
It's not just stolen food. There are entire industries for:
1) Acquiring and "reprocessing" expired food.
2) Smuggled food from overseas. Mainly for avoiding taxes.
3) Buying uncertified or unregulated goods (e.g. directly from farmers or uncertified factory)
It ends up being a painstaking process to make sure all our partners comply with regulations and quality standards.
Dry pasta is eternal as long as its kept dry, but can't be legally sold that way. Ditto plain white rice. Non white rice goes rancid in a couple months.
Aged "many years" cheese is normal (for some hard cheeses), but its only allowed to age a couple months in a fridge.
Potato chips if sealed from air won't go rancid.
Chocolate is eternal unless contaminated and even if its bloomed it can be remelted and re-tempered.
Honey is also eternal. Ditto syrups. And yes its illegal to sell food without an expiration date so even honey has an expiration date laughably. Crystallized honey can be fixed by 20 minutes of heating.
Salt has an expiration date. No kidding. For that pink Himalayan salt (or more likely fake made with food coloring) its 15 or 20 years I don't remember which.
It's not just stolen food. There are entire industries for:
1) Acquiring and "reprocessing" expired food.
2) Smuggled food from overseas. Mainly for avoiding taxes.
3) Buying uncertified or unregulated goods (e.g. directly from farmers or uncertified factory)
It ends up being a painstaking process to make sure all our partners comply with regulations and quality standards.