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| October 7, 2008 | |
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Home » Health & Safety Regulatory Issues |
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Health & Safety Backgrounder
FDA Model Food Code The NRA supports a Model Food Code that is uniform, based on sound science and workable for the restaurant industry. Overview What's in the FDA Food Code? State and local adoption of the Food Code How the Food Code gets updated NRA position on the FDA Food Code More resources Overview When states, counties and cities regulate food safety and sanitation in restauratns, the often look to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Model Food Code" for advice. The FDA introduced the Model Food Code in 1993. The model code replaced the so-called "FDA Unicode" that existed before that and for the first time incorporated HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)-based principles into the guidelines for restaurant-and-foodservice safety and sanitation. Since its inception, the FDA Food Code has been updated in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2005. The next version will be released in 2009. The 2005 version -- which the FDA calls its "best advice for a uniform national system of [food safety] regulation" -- is now the model many states and localities look to for guidance when adopting new food safety and sanitation regulations for restaurants and retail stores. The Model Food Code is not law, but rather guidance that can be adopted as regulation by state or local agencies. Some jurisdictions adopt the entire code by reference, some use portions and others do not incorporate any part of it at all. What's in the Food Code? The 2005 Food Code -- get a copy on the FDA's Web site -- includes 200+ pages of recommendations on such topics as:
State and local adoption of the Food Code States and localities are in a constant state of updating their own food-safety and sanitation rules for restaurants and foodservice operations. Many states revise and update their own codes after the FDA publishes a new Model Food Code. To find out what's going on in your state, join your state restaurant association. State associations lead the effort to shape reasonable, science-based sanitation rules for restaurants, working diligently to get state regulators to incorporate the FDA Code's best practices into state rules. You can also visit your state health department. Many states offer more details on state food-safety rules online. How the Food Code gets updated Soon after the FDA issues a new version of the Food Code, the agency begins working on the next version. The FDA gets feedback from many organizations on its code, but the most important input comes through the well-respected Conference for Food Protection, a group of state and federal officials, industry representatives, consumer groups, and academic officials that meets every two years to recommend Code changes. The FDA says it revises the Code based on input it receives from CFP stakeholders on the previous version. The CFP will meet this April to discuss the FDA's 2005 Code. The NRA is a key player in CFP meetings; check out the NRA's input to the FDA and the CFP in 2002. The NRA position on the FDA Model Food Code Since 1997 the National Restaurant Association has been working to expand restaurant-industry acceptance of the FDA Model Food Code and to encourage state adoption. The NRA believes it is clearly in the industry's best interest -- and in the best interest of restaurant customers -- to bring uniform science-based regulations to all 50 states. The NRA works closely with the FDA and others to advance this goal. The NRA also works with state restaurant associations to make sure state and local regulators incorporate the Food Code's best practices into their own health codes. Get more detailed documents on the NRA's position on specific Food Code provisions. • The NRA supports the goal of national food-code uniformity. A nationally recognized, widely accepted, reasonable and science-based food-safety code that states can adopt or local health authorities can use as a template can have a substantial and positive impact on public health in the United States. The NRA believes each new version of the FDA Model Food Code brings an opportunity to improve food-code uniformity across the nation, incorporate the latest public-health thinking about food safety, and resolve contentious food-safety debates. • The NRA recognizes the challenge involved in getting to national food-code uniformity. Just writing a Model Food Code is a tricky process, involving input from many parties: industry, state and local environmental-health professionals, scientists, and more. Getting buy-in is not easy. The National Restaurant Association will continue to work with the FDA, the CFP and state and local health and safety professionals toward uniformity. • While the 2005 FDA Food Code is not perfect, the NRA generally supports using it as the basis for adoption at the state and local level. Unfortunately, however, modifications of several sections of the FDA Food Code are still critical at the state and local level due to the FDA's resistance to reasonable modifications of the Model Code at the national level. • In the end, the NRA recognizes that public-health protection is in the hands of the dedicated state and local environmental-health professionals who conduct regulatory inspections, set standards for industry training programs, and much more. The National Restaurant Association looks forward to continuing to communicate, collaborate and work cooperatively with these professionals to reduce foodborne illness and meet the regulatory food-safety challenges of the 21st century. More resources • U.S. FDA's Food Code Web site • Conference for Food Protection -- group works with the FDA to update the Food Code • Key NRA documents related to the FDA Food Code |
