The FDA Food Code for special processes

What the FDA Food Code is

The FDA Food Code is the model rulebook for restaurants and retail food in the United States. FDA writes it with the Conference for Food Protection, and it sets out the cooking temperatures, cooling times, holding rules and special-process requirements that most health departments enforce. The title page says what it is for:

FDA Food Code 2022, Title page

The Food Code is a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer.

The key word is model. FDA does not enforce the Food Code in your restaurant. States, counties, cities and tribes do, after they adopt it into their own rules:

FDA Food Code 2022, Title page

This model is offered for adoption by local, state, 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.

FDA Food Code 2022, Preface

The model Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive.

So the code your inspector reads from is your state's or county's food code. Many adopt the FDA text by reference with a few changes; some write their own code based on it; a few run editions that are many years old. That is why every page on this site cites the FDA section and also tells you to check your local rules.

The 2022 Food Code, its Supplement, and the 2026 edition

The FDA Food Code 2022 is the 10th edition. FDA's adoption report says it was published in December 2022; the PDF on FDA's site carries the label "January 18, 2023 Version" on its title page. Every number on ClearHACCP, from cooking temperatures to the 30-day sous vide limit, is quoted from that text with its section.

FDA later issued a Supplement to the 2022 Food Code that updates some provisions. Agencies that adopted the 2022 code with those changes show as "2022 (w/Suppl.)" in the adoption table below.

FDA has since published the Food Code 2026. Its preface says the changes reflect the Supplement to the 2022 Food Code and the recommendations of the Conference for Food Protection's 2025 meeting. Among the significant changes it lists are allowing alternative cooling methods with regulatory approval, and added Annex 6 guidance for acidified rice, dehydration and freeze-drying. No state could have adopted it by the time of FDA's latest adoption report, so the plans and pages here stay on the 2022 text, the newest edition states are actually enforcing.

How to read a Food Code section number

Take 3-501.14(A)(1), the first stage of cooling:

The letters after many paragraphs are the priority designations defined in 1-201.10(B): P for a priority item that directly controls a hazard (cooking, reheating, cooling, handwashing), Pf for a priority foundation item that supports one (training, records, labeling, HACCP plans), and C for a core item (general sanitation, equipment, maintenance). Inspection reports often use the same labels.

The eight chapters cover purpose and definitions, management and personnel, food, equipment, water and plumbing, physical facilities, poisonous or toxic materials, and compliance and enforcement. The annexes add the reasoning behind the rules: Annex 3 gives the public health reason for each section, Annex 4 is FDA's HACCP guide for retail, Annex 5 guides inspectors, and Annex 6 covers food processing criteria such as reduced oxygen packaging, smoking and curing.

The Food Code sections that matter for special processes

Out of hundreds of sections, these are the ones that decide whether your kitchen needs a HACCP plan or a variance, and what goes in it.

Variance or HACCP plan: how the special-process rules fit together

Two routes lead to a HACCP plan, and mixing them up is the most common confusion we see.

FDA Food Code 2022, 3-502.11

A FOOD ESTABLISHMENT shall obtain a VARIANCE from the REGULATORY AUTHORITY as specified in § 8-103.10 and under § 8-103.11 before:

FDA Food Code 2022, 8-201.13(B)

Before engaging in REDUCED OXYGEN PACKAGING without a VARIANCE as specified under § 3-502.12, a PERMIT applicant or PERMIT HOLDER shall submit a properly prepared HACCP PLAN to the REGULATORY AUTHORITY.

Either way, the plan's contents are the same list in 8-201.14. And either way, your regulator reviews it; ClearHACCP builds it to the Food Code, ready to submit, and you sign it. Find out which route your process is on.

Which Food Code edition your state uses

FDA tracks which edition each state agency has adopted. The table below is transcribed row by row from FDA's report Adoption of the FDA Food Code by State and Territorial Agencies Responsible for the Oversight of Restaurants and/or Retail Food Stores, 2024 edition, which covers the period ending December 31, 2024 and counts an adoption from its effective date. Several states have more than one agency, usually one for restaurants and one for retail food stores, so they appear more than once.

State agencies by the edition they adopted (counted with or without the Supplement), 64 agencies in all. States on the 2022 edition through at least one agency: Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah.

Territories

The report also flags changes after its cutoff: Hawaii and Virginia finished rulemaking to adopt the 2022 Food Code with effective dates in March 2025 and February 2025, and several other states adopted 2022 after FDA collected its data. Adoption moves every year, and local agencies can add their own rules on top. For your state's agency, how to submit a plan and any public fees, see HACCP plan rules by state, and confirm with your local health department.

Source: FDA, Adoption of the FDA Food Code by State and Territorial Agencies, 2024 report, retrieved 2026-10-08. Agency names are printed as they appear in the report.

If your state runs an older edition

Most of the special-process rules on this site, such as the variance list, the reduced oxygen packaging criteria and the two-stage cooling rule, have been in the Food Code for several editions. But paragraph letters move, wording changes, and details can differ. A few practical rules:

• Cite your state's code in your plan. If your state is on 2017, the reviewer will look for the 2017 paragraph, even when the number is the same.
• Ask for the local template. Many health departments publish a HACCP plan template or checklist. It shows exactly what they want to see.
• Local rules can be stricter. A county can add requirements, such as a review fee, a specific form, or a shorter storage limit.
• Only your regulator approves. The Food Code is the starting point; your health department decides.

ClearHACCP builds your plan to the FDA Food Code 2022, ready to submit, with every limit's section printed beside it so a reviewer on any edition can check it fast. See your state or check your process free.

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