>A food startup who can't afford to hire those people might argue that they are at a disadvantage and therefore the regulations are onerous and favor large comp

>A food startup who can't afford to hire those people might argue that they are at a disadvantage and therefore the regulations are onerous and favor large companies. That is literally the point of food regulations. They are not prescriptive but descriptive. No regulation says 'make food with >100 E-coli per KG' it always says 'use stainless steel table, no smaller than 2mx1m, in a well ventilated room of size...'.