Retail Food Protection Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

The Food Code is a model code for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer. It represents FDA’s best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety and protection of food offered at retail and in food service. The Food Code is offered for adoption by local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal governmental jurisdictions for administration by the various departments, agencies, bureaus, divisions, and other units within each jurisdiction that have been delegated compliance responsibilities for food service, retail food stores, or food vending operations. FDA encourages its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to adopt the latest version of the FDA Food Code. In the current format, the 1993 version is the 1st edition of FDA Food Code, and the 2022 Food Code is the most recent full edition published by FDA, and it was published on December 28, 2022. 

This report was compiled by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Office of Food Safety, Retail Food Protection Staff. The data collected for this report was based on information obtained from FDA’s Retail Food Specialists who monitor Food Code adoption activities within each state and territory.

This report covers 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), and major U.S. territories. It includes adoption status, adoption methods, changes in the year of 2023, and summary changes from 2016 to 2023. Its release date is May 16, 2024.

Food Code Adoption Status Report (2023)

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