FDA Encourages Industry to Develop Best Practices, Use Root Cause Analyses
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Human Foods Program (FDA’s HFP) has released two new web resources on the development of industry best practices and the use of root cause analysis to understand food safety issues and prevent recurrence.
In a Food Safety Matters podcast interview recorded this week during the 2026 Food Safety Summit, Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Microbiological Food Safety in FDA’s HFP, discussed the newly released resources from the agency. The interview will be shared through all major podcast players and on the Food Safety Magazine website on May 19.
Industry–FDA Collaboration on Best Practices
The webpage on Food Safety Best Practices for Human Foods describes how industry can work with FDA to create best practices, which are not FDA guidance documents. Rather, best practices are guidelines, often specific to an individual food commodity or specific segment of an industry, developed by industry, academia, or other groups based on their experience and lessons learned. They are intended to communicate meaningful food safety best practices that farms, facilities, or other food producers can follow in their day-to-day operations to enhance food safety.
In support of the development of best practices, FDA subject matter experts often participate in industry- or academia-led workgroups, share scientific data and insights, provide technical and regulatory expertise, and review resources developed by external stakeholders. FDA encourages stakeholders to connect with the agency when developing best practices for technical assistance, scientific information, and help with regulatory alignment.
The webpage highlights collaborations on best practices and other documents.
Encouraging Root Cause Analyses
Root cause analyses (RCAs) help regulators and industry identify the problems that caused a food safety incident and how those problems may have occurred. The findings from an RCA can help firms improve their own food safety interventions, inform industry-wide best practices, and help FDA develop guidance and enhanced oversight—all of which can help prevent recurrence.
FDA’s new Root Cause Analysis webpage describes the process for an RCA, FDA’s use of RCAs, and FDA’s activities to strengthen RCA processes.
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