Section 204 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act requires the FDA to designate foods for which additional recordkeeping requirements are appropriate and necessary to protect public health, and to establish those recordkeeping requirements.
The additional recordkeeping requirements that the FDA proposes to establish are outlined in the Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods proposed rule and are intended to make it easier to rapidly and effectively track the movement of a food to prevent or mitigate a foodborne illness outbreak.
The Food Traceability List identifies the foods for which the additional traceability records described in the proposed rule would be required.
As noted in the proposed rule, the additional recordkeeping requirements would apply not only to foods specifically listed on the FTL, but also to foods that contain foods on the list as ingredients.
The Model was designed to be flexible and to consider a wide range of contaminants in FDA-regulated human foods.
To identify commodities for the Food Traceability List, the commodities and associated commodity-hazard pairs produced by the Model were ranked.
Commodities with associated commodity-hazard pairs with criteria scores in the moderate to strong range were considered for inclusion on the List.
In February 2014 the FDA issued a Federal Register notice to solicit comments on our draft approach for developing a list of high risk foods.
Taking into consideration the comments and other information submitted, we developed a draft risk-ranking model and collected data to populate the model for chemical and microbiological hazards associated with specific foods, with technical assistance from external expert panels.
Based on data in the Model, we tentatively identified foods for inclusion on the FTL. The list was announced with the Food Traceability Proposed Rule.
After considering any information or views submitted, the FDA would publish a second notice in the Federal Register, stating whether any changes are being made, and the reason for the decision.
Any additions to the list would become effective one year after the date of the second Federal Register notice, unless otherwise stated.