TL;DR
The Food Traceability Rule took effect in January 2023, but a provision in a 2025 federal law bars the FDA from spending funds to administer or enforce it before July 20, 2028. The agency must use the intervening period for quarterly industry meetings, guidance and testing, while the rule’s core lot-code requirement remains in place.
A provision in a federal law enacted in November 2025 bars the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to administer or enforce the Food Traceability Rule before July 20, 2028, leaving a rule that took effect in 2023 without enforcement during that period. The law also directs the agency to meet quarterly with food businesses and explore flexibilities in tracking food by lot.
The restriction is in Section 780 of Division B of H.R. 5371, the law that ended the government shutdown and became Public Law 119-37 on Nov. 12, 2025. The provision prohibits the use of funds appropriated by the act to administer or enforce the rule before July 20, 2028. It also directs FDA to hold quarterly meetings with farms, restaurants, retailers and warehouses, develop guidance on specified topics, and test the agency’s internal tracing system.
FDA’s second public meeting on lot-level food traceability is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2026. The meeting notice invites discussion of challenges and solutions in implementing the rule. People who want to speak must register by Oct. 26; same-day registration is not available. Written comments are due Dec. 6 in Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0053.
The rule applies to businesses handling foods on FDA’s Food Traceability List, including leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, sprouts, shell eggs, soft cheeses, certain seafood and ready-to-eat deli salads. Covered businesses must record specified information at events such as harvesting, packing, shipping and receiving, and link records using a traceability lot code. When FDA requests records during an outbreak investigation, covered firms must provide an electronic, sortable spreadsheet within 24 hours.
How the Pause Affects Outbreak Tracing
The rule is intended to help investigators connect contaminated food to its source more quickly. Its lot-code system is designed to link records across the supply chain, from initial packing through later handling, rather than relying only on basic records of the previous and next business in a transaction.
That distinction matters during an outbreak: better-linked records could help identify affected products and businesses and narrow the scope of recalls. The funding restriction does not erase the rule’s requirements, but it prevents FDA from administering or enforcing them with covered funds before the stated date. The practical result is a longer period in which the agency and businesses must work out implementation issues without federal enforcement under this provision.
The source report says the statute directs FDA to seek flexibilities around lot-level tracking and to issue guidance on food-waste recovery, reclamation, transfers within a company and customer returns. The agency’s work during this period may shape how businesses prepare, but the available information does not establish that the core lot-code requirement has been removed.
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From 2011 Mandate to 2028 Date
Congress directed FDA to strengthen food traceability in Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed in January 2011. The law called for identifying foods often associated with outbreaks and requiring better records from businesses that manufacture, process, pack or hold them. FDA’s earlier pilot projects found that traditional one-step-back, one-step-forward records could fail to connect restaurants or retailers where illnesses appeared to the farms that produced the food.
FDA missed Congress’s January 2013 deadline to propose the rule. After a 2018 lawsuit by the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Environmental Health, a consent decree established a schedule. FDA proposed the rule in September 2020 and issued the final version on Nov. 21, 2022. It took effect Jan. 20, 2023, with compliance originally due Jan. 20, 2026.
In March 2025, FDA announced an intended 30-month compliance extension, citing supply-chain partners that were not ready. The agency said the proposed delay would not change the rule’s requirements. FDA published a proposed extension in August 2025, but the source report says it had not been finalized. Congress then enacted the funding restriction in November 2025, placing the July 2028 date in statute for the restriction on administration and enforcement.
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Details Still Open Before 2028
The source report says FDA’s proposed rule to extend the compliance date had not been finalized. It does not explain whether later agency action will formalize the July 2028 date separately, or how the agency will handle the rule’s requirements after the statutory funding restriction expires.
It is also not clear what specific flexibilities FDA will recommend after its quarterly meetings, how those changes might affect different types of businesses, or what results the agency’s internal tracing-system test will produce. The source material does not provide a complete account of the reasons behind congressional support for the restriction. Lobbying disclosures cited in the report document some industry groups’ activity, but they do not by themselves establish why each lawmaker supported the provision.
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FDA Meetings and Guidance Ahead
FDA’s next listed public meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2026, with speaker registration due Oct. 26 and written comments due Dec. 6. The agency is also required by law to meet quarterly with representatives of farms, restaurants, retailers and warehouses and to address the specified guidance topics.
Businesses and public-health groups can use the meeting and docket to raise implementation concerns or argue for particular approaches to lot-level records. The next major date stated in the law is July 20, 2028, before which the funding provision bars FDA administration or enforcement of the rule. The available material does not specify a final compliance schedule beyond that date.
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Key Questions
Is the Food Traceability Rule still in effect?
Yes. The rule took effect on Jan. 20, 2023. The 2025 law bars FDA from using covered funds to administer or enforce it before July 20, 2028; the source report says the law did not repeal the rule or remove its core requirements.
Which foods are covered?
The Food Traceability List includes foods such as leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, sprouts, shell eggs, soft cheeses, certain seafood and ready-to-eat deli salads. Coverage depends on the food and the business activity described in the rule.
What does the lot-code requirement do?
It links records at key points in a food’s handling, including packing, shipping and receiving. The aim is to help trace a product through the supply chain during an outbreak investigation.
When is the next FDA public meeting?
The second public meeting on lot-level food traceability is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2026. Speaker registration closes Oct. 26, and written comments are due Dec. 6 in FDA docket FDA-2014-N-0053.
Source: rss
