The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today made available the 4th Annual Reportable Food Registry (RFR) Report. The report summarizes the Registry’s fourth year of operation (Sept. 8, 2012 – Sept. 7, 2013) and finds that it logged in 1269 reports, including 202 primary reports — initial reports about a safety concern with a food or animal feed (including food ingredients); 849 subsequent reports from suppliers or recipients of a food or feed for which a primary report had been submitted; and 218 amended reports to correct or add information to previously submitted reports. Reports were received from both domestic and foreign sources.

The report underscores RFR's importance as a valuable tool in tracking patterns of food adulteration and helping to remove dangerous products from the marketplace, FDA officials said. The following events resulted in the submission of the greatest number of reports during Year 4:

• Salmonella Bredeney in widely distributed peanut butter (related to a human illness outbreak investigation), resulting in 207 subsequent entries, i.e., reports resulting from a primary report
• Listeria monocytogenes in imported smoked salmon, resulting in 80 subsequent entries
• E. coli O121 in various frozen foods resulting in 69 subsequent entries (related to a human illness outbreak investigation).

On March 26, 2014, FDA published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek input to help the Agency with implementing section 211 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which added new provisions to the RFR requirements of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Under section 211, FDA may require a responsible party to submit to the Agency “consumer oriented” information regarding certain reportable foods, including information necessary to enable a consumer to accurately identify whether he or she possesses a reportable food.

Comments on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are due by June 9, 2014, and may be submitted electronically via Regulations.gov (use Docket No. FDA-2013-N-0590) or by mail to:

Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

For additional information about the Reportable Food Registry, see:

• Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Implementation of the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act Amendments to the Reportable Food Registry Provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
• Constituent Update explaining the Advance Notice of Propose Rulemaking
• Reportable Food Registry at a Glance
• Previous Annual Reports
• RFR On-line Educational Resources