How are changes made to the FDA Food Code?

By: Ashley Eisenbeiser, Director of Food and Product Safety, Food Marketing Institute 

The FDA Food Code is the go-to resource for retail food safety professionals. The Food Code is a model guidance that includes science-based food safety principles for the retail and food service industry to protect public health and ensure the food sold to consumers is safe. The Food Code is commonly adopted by state, local and tribal agencies responsible for regulating the U.S. retail food and food service industry, including grocery stores, restaurants, cafeterias, vending machines, schools, and correctional facilities.

So, how does the Food Code get updated and changed? Food safety professionals from an array of industries including food retail will gather next week in Boise, Idaho for the 2016 Conference for Food Protection biennial meeting. Established in 1971, the Conference for Food Protection (CFP) brings together food safety representatives from: local, state and federal regulatory agencies; industry; academia; professional organizations and consumer groups to address food safety issues and develop recommendations that will promote food safety and improve consumer protection.

CFP is unique because it provides an open forum to foster collaboration between each constituency group in order to establish and enhance uniform standards for all aspects of retail, food service, and vending food protection. Input from those participating in the upcoming 2016 Conference for Food Protection will be reflected in the next edition of the FDA Food Code, scheduled to be released in 2017.

For FMI, it is important that we are a part of these overarching food safety conversations to achieve a uniform standard across the retail food industry so that our members can better develop and implement food safety programs to comply with the many jurisdictional requirements.