Pennsylvania, Mississippi First to Adopt 2022 Version of FDA Food Code, According to Status Report
Credit: Kampus Production via Pexels, FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released its Food Code Adoption Status Report for 2022. FDA released the most recent version of the Food Code in December 2022.
The Food Code is FDA’s official guidance on food safety best practices in retail and foodservice environments for local, state, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions (SLTTs). The Office of Food Safety within FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) compiled the report using data obtained from FDA’s Retail Food Specialists who monitor Food Code adoption activities within states and territories. All 50 states, Washington D.C., Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands were monitored for and included in the 2022 report.
Reflecting rates that have not changed since the 2021 report, 62.47 percent of the population lives in one of the 34 states that have adopted one of the three most recent versions of the Food Code (2022, 2017, and 2013 versions), while 43.42 percent lives in one of the 18 states that have adopted the two most recent versions (2022 and 2017 versions). Only two states and two territories— Pennsylvania and Mississippi, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands—have adopted the 2022 Food Code. In Mississippi, the 2022 Food Code was adopted by a single agency, the Mississippi Department of Health.
Additionally, since the 2021 report, Oklahoma changed its Food Code adoption status from the 2017 version to the 2017 version with supplement. Aside from Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, since the last report, the food code adoption status remained unchanged in all other states and territories. California remains the only one of the 50 states that has not adopted some version of the Food Code.
However, agencies in Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio are still in progress with intent to adopt the 2017 or 2022 Food Code. An agency in Missouri is also planning to restart its rulemaking process in 2023 with the newest edition of the Food Code.
The 2022 report also analyzes changes in states’ Food Code adoption status since CFSAN published the first Food Code Adoption Status Report in 2016. The analysis found that adoption of the 2017 Food Code increased every year since it was published in February 2018 and before the 2022 Food Code was published. Additionally, adoption of the 2013 Food Code increased before the 2017 Food Code was published and decreased after the 2017 Food Code was published. Adoption of the 2009 Food Code decreased from 22 states to 9 states from 2016–2022.
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