(FDA: College Park, MD) -- The Food and Drug Administration recently announced the publication of the new FDA Food Code, a model code and reference document that provides a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment of the food industry. The 2009 FDA Food Code is a key component of the President’s overall public-health-focused food safety framework for maintaining a safe food supply.

State, city, county, tribal, and territorial agencies regulate more than 1 million restaurants, retail food stores, and vending and food service operations in institutions such as schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and child care centers. The model FDA Food Code provides the basis for most of those agencies’ licensing, inspection, and enforcement activities, as well as serves as a model for their food statutes, regulations, and ordinances.

Release of the FDA Food Code provides all levels of government with practical, science-based guidance and manageable, enforceable provisions for mitigating known risks of food-borne illness. The FDA Food Code also serves as a reference document for the retail food industry.

 …