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A Matter of Time: Exploring Variation in Food and Drug Administration Food Code Adoption Among State Retail Food Regulatory Agencies

Abstract

Frequent and timely state adoption of the Food and Drug Administration Food Code signals a commitment to the use of contemporary science-based interventions for the control of foodborne illness risk factors in retail food establishments. The regularity with which states adopt each new edition of the Food Code, however, remains unclear. This study examined the relationship between mode and frequency of adopting the most current edition of the Food Code over time among 64 state retail food regulatory agencies. Among agencies that adopted an edition of the Food Code, the amount of time until adoption was approximately 1.4 years for the 2013 Food Code (current), 3.5 years for the 2009 Food Code (recent), and 3.3 years for the 2005 Food Code (older). When considering adoption over time, approximately 23% of agencies tended to adopt a current edition (current adopters) of the Food Code, 41% of agencies tended to adopt recent editions (moderate adopters), and 36% of agencies tended to adopt older editions (late adopters). There was no significant difference, however, in the odds of an agency being a current, moderate, or late adopter, regardless of an agency's mode of adoption.

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Authors

  • Charles E. Idjagboro, MPH, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration
  • Girvin L. Liggans, MS, PhD, REHS, DAAS, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration
  • Veronica S. Moore, MS, LEHS, REHS, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration
  • Son T. Hoang, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, University of Maryland
Volume#: 83.2
Page #: 8-15
Publication Month: September 2020

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