Consumer Reports urges Congress to oppose bills that would undermine FDA’s response to foodborne illness outbreaks

CR joined the Safe Food Coalition in calling on lawmakers to not gut FDA’s “Food Traceability Final Rule”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Consumer Reports along with the Safe Food Coalition urged Congress in a letter today to reject industry efforts that would greatly undermine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ability to protect the public from foodborne illness outbreaks. The bills would delay implementation and weaken the FDA’s “Traceability Rule,” which aims to improve the agency’s response to foodborne illness outbreaks and facilitate faster and more effective recalls of contaminated food.

Congress required the FDA to enact the traceability rule as part of the Food Safety Modernization Action (FSMA), which was passed with broad bipartisan support in 2010. The rule is currently set to go into effect on January 20, 2026.

“Recent efforts to undermine and delay the implementation of the traceability rule would leave consumers at risk when unsafe food enters the marketplace,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food safety at Consumer Reports. “Significant progress is already being made on food traceability, with some retailers announcing they expect their suppliers to comply with the rule’s requirements in advance of the implementation date.”

Ronholm continued, “Last week’s FDA warning letter to Dollar Tree for failing to remove recalled apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches contaminated with lead from store shelves serves as a critical reminder of the need to move forward with the traceability rule without further delay.”

FSMA directed FDA to propose recordkeeping requirements for certain “high risk” foods no later than January 2013. When FDA failed to propose the recordkeeping requirements, the Center for Food Safety sued the agency, leading to a federal court order mandating that it propose requirements by September 2020, and finalize the rulemaking process by November 2022.

The FDA complied with that order, announcing a final rule that requires manufacturers, processors, packers and retailers to maintain records containing certain “Key Data Elements,” including lot codes, associated with specific “Critical Tracking Events” for designated foods. Parties subject to the final rule must be able to report the required information to FDA within 24 hours to help facilitate more effective foodborne illness outbreak investigations and recalls.

The rule aligns with best industry practices. Already, as the compliance date approaches, companies have made significant progress in tracking and recording data for food traceability purposes. However, some industry groups are pushing  for legislation in the House that would exempt lot code information from the traceability rule. HR 7563 would effectively gut FDA’s rule by allowing retailers to discard critical lot code information that has been carefully developed and maintained by companies subject to the rule. Such lot codes lie at the core of FDA’s ability to trace and solve outbreaks.

Separately, a provision in the Fiscal Year 2025 Agriculture appropriations bill would put the FDA 2026 implementation date on hold by demanding that the agency conduct additional traceability pilots, including a pilot that will require the agency to “successfully” solve outbreaks without using lot code information. The bill provides no new funding for such pilots and effectively cuts funding the agency at FY 2024 levels. The apparent intent of the appropriation provision is to indefinitely delay the traceability rule by exempting lot code information, the rule’s core element.

For more details, see the Safe Food Coalition’s letter to House and Senate leaders calling on them to oppose bills in Congress that would undermine the FDA’s traceability rule.