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FDA News
2005 Food Code Updates
Food Safety Guidelines
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the
2005 edition of the Food Code,
which contains the latest science-based information on food safety for retail and food service industries. The Food
Code is used as a reference by nearly 3,000 regulatory agencies that oversee food safety in restaurants, grocery stores,
nursing homes, and other institutional and retail settings.
“The 2005 Food Code not only includes the best practices for the retail and food service
industries but it also provides valuable resources on food defense that will assist in protecting Americans against threats
to the food supply,” said FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Director Robert Brackett.
In collaboration with the Conference for Food Protection, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the updated Food Code focuses on enhancing food safety practices based on
new scientific and programmatic information. The most significant changes
- A definition for major food allergen that is consistent with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of
2004. The person in charge of a food establishment must demonstrate knowledge about the major food allergens milk, egg,
fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts e.g., almonds, pecans, or walnuts, wheat, peanuts and
soybeans.
- An amended definition of potentially hazardous food also known as time/temperature control for safety (TCS)
food to reflect those that could allow pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin
formation.
- Added new controls and operations for reduced oxygen packaging; Summarized available resources on food defense and
links to useful publications from the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Agriculture and
industry groups.
- Refocused date-marking provisions on foods that present a higher risk of contamination. Date marking is the
practice of indicating the date or day by which a ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food should be consumed,
sold, or discarded.
- Updated Employee Health provisions to include better ways to protect public health, based on new science on pathogens
that are most likely to be transmitted from an infected food worker through food to consumers.
Local, state, tribal and federal regulators voluntarily use the Food Code as a model to develop or
update their own food safety rules and to maintain consistency and uniformity with national food regulatory policy. The
Association of Food and Drug Officials reported in June 2005, that 48 of 56 States and territories have adopted food codes
patterned after the Food Code. Those 48 states and territories represent 79 percent of the U.S. population.
Copies of the Food Code can be purchased from the National Technical Information Service, U.S.
Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161.
U.S. FDA / Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
888-SAFEFOOD
www.cfsan.fda.gov
Available in PDF below
2005 FDA Food Code
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