On June 26, 2023, FDA published a set of FAQs, related to the Food Traceability Rule, along with several new tools on its traceability website intended to help educate and inform industry about the Rule.  

For context, the Rule is one of the nine major finalized rules intended to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act and thereby reduce the prevalence of foodborne illness. As we have previously blogged about, the Rule, which was issued in November 2022 and has a compliance date of January 20, 2026, is intended to allow for faster identification and removal of potentially contaminated food from the market.  The Food Traceability List (FTL) designates the foods subject to the rule, and manufacturers of such foods must maintain records about critical tracking events in their supply chain.

With the compliance date fast approaching, the new FAQs and tools may help those subject to the Food Traceability Rule determine how the Rule applies and prepare them to meet the requirements. Of note, the new tools include: the results for all foods and associated commodity-hazard pairs in the Risk-Ranking Model for Food Tracing (a tool used by FDA to designate the foods on the FTL); additional descriptions on the Food Traceability List to clarify ambiguous terms; new supply chain examples illustrating how the rule is applied in a variety of scenarios; a new Food Traceability Rule fact sheet; a guide to getting started with the Food Traceability Rule; and additional foreign language translations of tools and supply chain examples.