FMI urges additional time and flexibility for traceability rule

FMI, The Food Industry Association, is asking the Food and Drug Administration for flexibility and time for food companies to implement its Food Traceability Rule.

The group offered its support for the process set forth by the FDA to seek feedback from stakeholders regarding challenges in complying with the traceability regulation.

The Reagan-Udall Foundation also issued a report in September calling for staggered implementation of the traceability rule, starting with suppliers.

“Because the Food Traceability Final Rule requires information sharing throughout the supply chain, FDA determined the most effective and efficient way to implement the rule is to have all persons subject to the requirements come into compliance by the same date: January 20, 2026,” the Regan-Udall report said. “While participants understand this approach in theory, and participants aligned on the value of enhanced traceability, many suggested a staggered implementation schedule might offer greater efficiency and compliance. Suggestions included staggering compliance by sector or by company size to capitalize on learnings that could be shared along the supply chain or between larger and smaller entities. As each sector of the supply chain (the purchaser) relies on information provided by the prior sector participant (their supplier), sector-by-sector implementation could start at the beginning of the supply chain and progress through to retail and create a road map to compliance.”

FMI Chief Public Policy Officer Jennifer Hatcher said that the food traceability rule is the most complex rule the industry has ever faced.

“As the report demonstrates, the food supply chain is unified in expressing that additional time and flexibility is required in order to comply with the rule in a way that ensures the billions of dollars and millions of staff hours needed for implementation will be used in a productive way to enable FDA to retrieve the information they need more efficiently and accurately,” Hatcher said in a news release. “To be clear, since the final rule was published, FMI and our member companies have spent considerable effort including thousands of hours collaborating with dozens of members and staff to identify compliance solutions and develop resources to support our entire membership. These include an implementation guide, various templates, and a compliance guide – all developed with the input of professionals across our member companies that are experts in traceability, food protection, industry collaboration, technology, supply chain, and government relations.”

Hatcher said FMI is asking FDA to take this information into account to provide more time for compliance and work to participate in data retrieval pilot projects to ensure that implementation will provide meaningful value to FDA without “unnecessarily driving up costs or negatively impacting product availability.”