2005 Food Code updates food safety guidelines.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued the 2005 edition of the Food Code, which contains the latest science-based information on food safety for retail and food service industries. The Food Code is used as a reference by nearly 3,000 regulatory agencies that oversee food safety in restaurants, grocery stores, nursing homes, and other institutional and retail settings.

In collaboration with the Conference for Food Protection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the updated Food Code focuses on enhancing food safety practices according to new scientific and program information. The most significant changes are as follows:

* It defines "major food allergen" in a way that is consistent with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004. The person in charge of a food establishment must demonstrate knowledge about the major food allergens (milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts [e.g., almonds, pecans, or walnuts], wheat, peanuts, and soybeans).

* It amends the definition of potentially hazardous food (also known as time/temperature control for safety [TCS] food) to reflect foods that could allow pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation.

* It adds new controls and operations for reduced-oxygen packaging; it also summarizes available resources on food defense and links to useful publications from FDA, CDC, USDA, and industry groups.

* It refocuses date-marking provisions on foods that present a higher risk of contamination. Date marking is the practice of indicating the date or day by which a ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food should be consumed, sold, or discarded.

* It updates employee health provisions to include better ways to protect public health according to new science identifying the pathogens that are most likely to be transmitted from an infected worker to consumers through food.

The Association of Food and Drug Officials reported in June 2005 that 48 of 56 states and territories have adopted food codes patterned after the Food Code. Those 48 states and territories represent 79 percent of the U.S. population.

Copies of the 2005 Food Code are available at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fc05-toc.html, or they can be purchased from the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22161.