FOOD TRACEABILITYLEDGER

Follow the food. Preserve the record.

Covered domestic and foreign persons that manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods on the Food Traceability List for U.S. consumption, subject to the rule's definitions and exemptions · U.S. federal regulation

Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods

The rule establishes additional records for defined critical tracking events involving Food Traceability List foods, including key data elements, traceability lot codes, traceability plans, record availability, and electronic sortable spreadsheet requirements.

Final rule in force; FDA proposed a compliance-date extension and Congress directed non-enforcement before July 20, 2028Binding federal regulation within scope; implementation and enforcement timing must be read from current FDA and statutory records

What the authority record establishes

The rule establishes additional records for defined critical tracking events involving Food Traceability List foods, including key data elements, traceability lot codes, traceability plans, record availability, and electronic sortable spreadsheet requirements.

Binding federal regulation within scope; implementation and enforcement timing must be read from current FDA and statutory records

The exact official title, issuing body, jurisdiction, version or application record, and linked source define the scope of this page. Readers should not transfer the authority's status to a commercial product or infer transaction-, patient-, system-, site-, or organization-specific applicability from this summary.

Why it matters to this market

The rule turns lot identity, event semantics, transformation, partner exchange, plan governance, and rapid response into an enterprise data-coordination problem while leaving applicability and legal responsibility with the covered person.

Affected operating stages

  • Applicability And Exemption Review
  • Traceability Plan
  • Harvesting Cooling And Initial Packing
  • Shipping Receiving And Transformation
  • Partner Data Exchange
  • Authority Response And Retention

Capabilities to examine

Critical Tracking Event And Key Data Element Capture

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for critical tracking event and key data element capture.

Traceability Lot Code And Lot Genealogy

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for traceability lot code and lot genealogy.

Transformation Commingling Rework And Repacking Records

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for transformation commingling rework and repacking records.

Receiving Shipping And Distribution Event Capture

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for receiving shipping and distribution event capture.

Electronic Sortable Spreadsheet And Authority Response

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for electronic sortable spreadsheet and authority response.

API EDI ERP WMS And POS Integration

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for API EDI ERP WMS and POS integration.

Affected buyer audiences

  • food manufacturers and processors
  • growers packers and seafood operators
  • distributors retailers and foodservice
  • importers warehouses and technology teams

Implementation questions

  • Which entities, products, populations, transactions, systems, sites, or jurisdictions are actually within scope?
  • What is binding, what is guidance, and what is a technical or consensus standard?
  • Which publication, adoption, effective, application, transition, and enforcement dates differ?
  • Who owns legal, clinical, quality, regulatory, policy, or operational interpretation?
  • How will a source revision affect open work and historical decisions?

Interpretation boundary

The publication does not determine whether a particular food, person, location, activity, exemption, or record is in scope and does not treat the proposed extension as a change to the substantive rule requirements.