The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Code is a model code that represents the 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.

This model is offered for adoption by local, state, tribal, and territorial agencies with responsibility for food service, retail food stores, or food vending operations.

The benefits of adopting the 2022 Food Code include:

• Reduction of the risk of foodborne illnesses within food establishments, protecting consumers and industry from health consequences and financial losses.
• Uniform standards for retail food safety that reduce complexity and better ensure compliance.
• The elimination of redundant processes for establishing food safety criteria.
• The establishment of a more standardized approach to inspections and audits of food establishments.

A new edition of the Food Code is released every 4 years. The most recent edition was released in 2022.

Please click the link below to visit the FDA Food Code page and to see the 2022 version of the food code itself.

See our other tools related to the FDA Food Code.

Last updated: May 3, 2023