The FDA Food Code is one of those “go-to” resources for many retail food safety professionals. The Food Code provides a foundation for many regulatory agencies across the U.S. and is a model that represents FDA’s best advice for a uniform system of regulation in order to protect public health and ensure the safety of food at retail and foodservice operations. The first version of the Food Code was published in 1993 so this year marks the 25th year of the Food Code. The 2017 Food Code, the most recent version, was published last month and is available on the FDA Retail Food Protection webpage along with a Summary of Changes made to the 2017 Food Code.
Although the 2017 FDA Food Code has been released, many jurisdictions are using previous Food Code versions. For the most part, state and local regulatory agencies have to go through lengthy legislative processes in order to adopt a newer version of the FDA Food Code. Often, by the time the legislative process plays out, a newer Food Code is already available. A new Food Code is published every four years and a supplement is usually published during the time between Food Code editions.
According to a recent FDA report on the Adoption of the FDA Food Code by State and Territorial Agencies, “There are 66 state agencies responsible for providing regulatory oversight of either restaurants, or retail food stores, or both.”
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