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The Food Traceability Rule took effect in January 2023, but a provision in the 2025 law ending the government shutdown bars FDA from using funds to administer or enforce it before July 20, 2028. FDA is directed to meet quarterly with affected sectors and identify flexibilities, including options involving lot-level tracking. The rule’s requirements remain in place, but the source says the FDA’s proposed extension has not been finalized.
A provision in the law that ended the 2025 government shutdown bars the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to administer or enforce its Food Traceability Rule before July 20, 2028, despite the rule having taken effect in January 2023. The law also directs FDA to meet quarterly with affected food businesses and identify flexibilities for meeting the rule’s lot-level tracking requirement.
The restriction appears in Section 780 of Division B of Public Law 119-37, enacted Nov. 12, 2025. It says funds appropriated by the law may not be used to administer or enforce the rule before July 20, 2028. The provision also directs FDA to meet with farms, restaurants, retailers and warehouses every quarter, develop guidance on specified handling and recovery issues, and test the agency’s own tracing system.
The rule covers foods on FDA’s Food Traceability List, including leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, sprouts, some seafood, soft cheeses, shell eggs and ready-to-eat deli salads. Covered businesses must keep key records at specified points such as harvesting, packing, shipping and receiving, and connect those records through a traceability lot code. When FDA requests records during an outbreak, a covered company must provide an electronic, sortable spreadsheet within 24 hours.
Food Safety News reports that FDA’s proposed rule to extend the compliance date to July 20, 2028, was published in August 2025 but, as of the article’s reporting, had not been finalized. The later congressional funding restriction is distinct: it limits the agency’s ability to administer or enforce the rule before that date. The source describes the underlying requirements as unchanged.
A Four-Year Enforcement Pause
The rule is intended to help investigators trace certain foods through the supply chain during outbreaks. FDA’s pilot projects in 2011 and 2012, conducted by the Institute of Food Technologists, found that customary “one step forward, one step back” records could fail to connect restaurants and grocery stores where illnesses were identified with the farms that produced the food, according to the source report. The lot code links records across stages of handling, making it central to the system.
The pause has practical consequences for businesses and public health. Companies have more time before FDA may use appropriated funds to administer or enforce the rule, while the agency is required to pursue implementation discussions and guidance. The Congressional Research Service estimated the rule would affect more than 323,000 domestic businesses, operating about 484,000 establishments. The source does not quantify how the enforcement restriction will affect outbreak investigations or illness detection.
The law’s approach also changes who controls the timetable. FDA had announced an intended extension in 2025; Congress then enacted a funding bar that, according to the report, prevents the agency from changing course through enforcement before July 2028. That means the delay is not merely an announced agency schedule.
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From FSMA Mandate to Delay
Congress directed FDA to establish stronger records for foods frequently associated with outbreaks in Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed in January 2011. FDA was to propose a rule by January 2013 but missed that deadline. After a 2018 lawsuit by the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Environmental Health, a consent decree set a schedule for the agency’s proposal and final rule.
FDA issued its proposal in September 2020 and finalized the rule on Nov. 21, 2022. It took effect Jan. 20, 2023, with compliance originally set for Jan. 20, 2026. The source says that deadline already included an additional year requested by industry. In September 2023, FDA said routine inspections would not begin until 2027.
In March 2025, FDA announced it intended to move the compliance date back 30 months, citing supply-chain partners that were not ready. The agency said the change would not amend the rule’s requirements. Congress later included the funding restriction in the law enacted to end the shutdown. An earlier proposal, H.R. 7563, would have changed lot-code duties for retailers, restaurants and warehouses and required further pilot projects, but the source says it did not receive a vote.
“No funds appropriated by the Act may be used to administer or enforce the rule before July 20, 2028.”
— The Food Safety News report, describing Section 780 of Public Law 119-37
What the Pause Leaves Open
The supplied report does not establish whether FDA has finalized its proposed 2028 compliance-date extension. It says the proposal had not been finalized as of its reporting, while the congressional law separately bars administration or enforcement before July 20, 2028. The precise legal and administrative status of the proposed rule after that report is not provided.
It is also unclear what specific flexibilities FDA will recommend, how those options will affect lot-code records, or what the agency’s internal tracing-system test will find. The source’s account of lobbying and industry support for delays does not establish that every covered business opposed the rule or that industry lobbying alone caused Congress to act.
FDA Meetings and 2028 Deadline
FDA’s second public meeting on “Challenges and Solutions in Lot-Level Food Traceability” is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2026. Anyone wishing to speak must register by Oct. 26; the notice does not allow same-day registration. Written comments are due Dec. 6 in Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0053.
The meeting is presented as a forum on implementation, but the source says the notice focuses more narrowly on ways to address the lot-code requirement. FDA is also required to hold quarterly meetings with farms, restaurants, retailers and warehouses, issue guidance on food-waste recovery, reclamation, intracompany transfers and customer returns, and test its tracing system. The rule’s enforcement and administration remain subject to the federal funding restriction until July 20, 2028.
Key Questions
Is the Food Traceability Rule still in effect?
The rule took effect on Jan. 20, 2023. The 2025 law bars FDA from using funds to administer or enforce it before July 20, 2028; the source says the requirements themselves were not amended by the earlier proposed date extension.
Which foods are covered?
The Food Traceability List includes foods such as leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, sprouts, fresh-cut produce, shell eggs, nut butters, soft cheeses, certain seafood and ready-to-eat deli salads.
What records does the rule require?
Covered businesses must record key data at specified tracking events and link records with a traceability lot code. When FDA requests records during an outbreak, a covered company must provide an electronic, sortable spreadsheet within 24 hours.
When can people comment on FDA’s next public meeting?
The meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2026. Requests to speak must be submitted by Oct. 26, and written comments are due Dec. 6 in Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0053.
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