The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is encouraging states, plus local, tribal and territorial partners, to adopt the latest version of the FDA Food Code, which applies to retail food stores and foodservice operations.
The Food Code is a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer, according to a news release. It represents FDA's best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety and protection of food offered at retail and in foodservice.
“The Food Code establishes practical, science-based guidance for mitigating risk factors that are known to cause or contribute to foodborne illness outbreaks associated with retail and foodservice establishments and is an important part of strengthening our nation’s food protection system,” according to the report.
The Food Code can be administered by various departments, agencies, bureaus, divisions and other units within each jurisdiction that have been delegated compliance responsibilities for foodservice, retail food stores or food vending operations.
The report says that 88.07% of the U.S. population lives in a state where at least one state agency has adopted some version of the FDA Food Code, while 43.42% of the population lives in a state that adopted the most recent versions, which would be the 2017 version — until now.
More information about adopting this updated code is in this report: “Adoption of the FDA Food Code by State and Territorial Authorities Responsible of the Oversight of Foodservice and Retail Food Stores – December 31, 2021.”
This report was compiled by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Office of Food Safety. The data collected for this report was based on information obtained from FDA’s retail food specialists, who monitor Food Code adoption activities within each state and territory.
The 10-page report is available for download here.
The 2017 Food Code with its 2017 supplement, are the latest versions.
A new Food Code is usually issued every four years, with a supplement in between, but plans have changed a bit. The next scheduled full edition of the FDA Food Code, the 10th edition, was originally scheduled in 2021, but it is now planned in 2022.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 meeting of the Conference for Food Protection was moved to August 2021. Hereafter, the conference will be on an odd-year cycle.
“FDA values the input of all retail food stakeholder groups through the [Conference for Food Protection] and subsequently adjusted its release-year cycle for the Food Code to follow in the year after the [conference] is held,” the report states.
With this adjustment to an even-year FDA Food Code release cycle going forward, the next full edition will be released in 2022.