Food Code 2026
The Food Code is a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer. It represents FDA's best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety of food offered at retail and in food service.
This model is offered for adoption by local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal governmental jurisdictions for administration by the various departments, agencies, bureaus, divisions, and other units within each jurisdiction that have been delegated compliance responsibilities for food service, retail food stores, or food vending operations. Alternatives that offer an equivalent level of public health protection to ensure that food at retail and food service is safe are recognized in this model.
The 2026 Food Code reflects the agency’s continued commitment to maintaining cooperative programs with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.
The 2026 edition was developed with input from regulatory officials, industry, academia, and consumers that participated in the biennial meeting of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP). CFP and our partners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency help ensure the Food Code establishes sound model requirements that help prevent foodborne illness and injury and aim to eliminate food safety hazards in retail and foodservice facilities.
The FDA encourages its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to adopt the latest version of the FDA Food Code. Complete and widespread adoption of the 2026 Food Code as statutes, codes, and ordinances helps:
- Reduce foodborne illness risk within food establishments, protecting consumers and industry from potentially devastating health consequences/financial losses;
- Create uniform standards for retail food safety that reduce complexity and better ensure compliance;
- Eliminate redundant processes for establishing food safety criteria; and,
- Establish a more standardized approach to inspections and audits of food establishments.
Members of the FDA’s Office of Retail Food Protection staff are available to assist regulatory officials, educators, and the industry in their efforts to adopt, implement, and understand the provisions of the FDA Food Code.