i- Last month FDA published a response to 25 recommended changes to the Food Code that were made by the Conference for Food Protection (CFP) following its 2023 biennial meeting. See Response Letter.
- The Food Code is published by the FDA every four years (along with yearly supplements) and serves as a model to ensure safe handling of food in a retail setting. See Most recent 2022 edition. Some version of the Food Code has been adopted by every state except California.
- When updating the code, FDA works in cooperation with CFP, a voluntary national organization that is devoted to bringing together members of industry, regulatory, academia, consumer, and professional organizations to develop modern food safety standards, including those at the retail level. See Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 225-93-4006 between FDA and CFP; see also CFP Conference.
- FDA’s response indicates that it “conceptually agrees” with 17 of the recommendations, “partially concurs” with 5 of the recommendations, and “either non-concurs or will consider the recommendation before deciding whether a Food Code modification is warranted” with 3 of the recommendations. Notably, CFP requested that FDA acknowledge the practice of intentionally adding sesame to bread and similar products to work around sesame allergen labeling issues. (For more background on the issue, see our prior post). FDA noted that it had already acknowledged the practice and was working with industry to find alternative solutions
FDA Responds to CFP Recommendations for Food Code Update
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
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