FDA food-safety changes, interpreted for the person responsible.
A weekly digest for QA and food-safety managers at mid-size food manufacturers. We read the Federal Register, the eCFR, and FDA enforcement activity so your Monday starts with answers, not tabs.
First 3 issues are free for everyone on the list — judge the work before you pay for it.
What we watch, so you don't have to
Four primary sources, scanned every week:
Federal Register
Every FDA rule, proposed rule, and notice — filtered to what touches food.
eCFR text changes
Amendments to 21 CFR Part 1 Subpart S (traceability) and Part 117 (preventive controls).
Enforcement reports
openFDA recall data — surfaced when a pattern holds a lesson for your plant.
FDA recall & outbreak feeds
The fresh signals, before they reach the trade press.
A real issue, not a promise
Excerpts from Issue #1, covering July 16–23, 2026. This is the actual product.
🕐 FSMA 204 Countdown — 24 months out
No new FDA action this week — and that's the news. The Food Traceability Rule enforcement date (July 20, 2028) is now under 24 months away. We checked 21 CFR Part 1 Subpart S directly via the eCFR: no text amendments this week.
- Applies to you if: you manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods on the Food Traceability List.
- Do before when: if you haven't mapped which products are on the FTL, that's the 2026 task — KDE capture needs a budget cycle and supplier coordination before 2028.
Source: Federal Register · Verified 2026-07-23
📜 Final rule: Pasteurized OJ standard modernized — effective Aug 19, 2026
Minimum soluble solids drop from 10.5° to 10° Brix; up to 15% Citrus reticulata juice now permitted (21 CFR Part 146).
- Applies to you if: you produce, blend, or private-label pasteurized OJ — or buy it against a spec citing the old standard.
- Do before when: effective 2026-08-19. If your ingredient specs say "meets 21 CFR 146.140," the standard under your spec is changing — ask your supplier if they'll reformulate.
Source: Federal Register, final rule 2026-14573 · Verified 2026-07-23
🚨 Recall lesson: foreign material from packaging, not processing
PT Organics recalled fruit-puree pouches after an internal packaging defect left soft plastic strands in finished product.
- Lesson: packaging-sourced foreign material belongs in your hazard analysis under packaging receiving and changeover — a five-minute check most plans miss.
Source: FDA recall notice · Verified 2026-07-23
Issue #1 also covers the Orange B revocation (effective Sep 8), the Citrus Red No. 2 proposal (comments close Aug 24), infant formula recordkeeping review (comments close Sep 15), and a 1.59M-dozen shell egg recall.
Founding subscriber
or $490/year (two months free) · pricing locked in for founding subscribers
- Weekly digest: rules, guidance, enforcement — interpreted, sourced, dated
- FSMA 204 countdown tracking through the 2028 deadline
- Share freely inside your organization
- Reply directly — coverage questions shape what we track
- Cancel anytime
Prefer annual? $490/yr →
Why trust us
We're new, and we won't pretend otherwise. No fake testimonials, no invented subscriber counts. Instead:
- Primary sources, always. Every interpretation links to the Federal Register, eCFR, or FDA.gov document it came from. Check our work — that's the point.
- Explicit applicability. Every item says who it applies to. If it doesn't apply to you, we've saved you the reading time either way.
- Dated verification. Every item carries the date we verified it against the source.
- Public corrections. When we get something wrong, the correction runs at the top of the next issue and stays in a public corrections log. Accuracy you can audit beats authority you have to take on faith.
Common questions
Straight answers, with the primary sources linked.
What is FSMA 204?
FSMA 204 is the FDA's Food Traceability Rule, issued under Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act. It requires companies that manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods on the Food Traceability List to keep additional traceability records — Key Data Elements captured at Critical Tracking Events — and produce them for FDA within 24 hours of a request (FDA: Food Traceability Final Rule).
When is the FSMA 204 compliance deadline?
July 20, 2028. FDA extended the original January 20, 2026 compliance date by 30 months, and Congress made the extension binding in the FY2026 Continuing Appropriations Act (Federal Register: compliance date extension).
Who must comply with FSMA 204?
Any company that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds foods on the FDA's Food Traceability List — manufacturers, processors, distributors, and retailers — with limited exemptions for certain small originators and other categories defined in 21 CFR Part 1 Subpart S.
What is FSMA Radar?
A weekly email digest that monitors the Federal Register, the eCFR, and FDA enforcement activity for food-safety regulatory changes. Every item answers three questions — what changed, does it apply to you, and what to do before when — with a link to the primary source and a dated verification stamp.
How much does FSMA Radar cost?
Founding-subscriber pricing is $49 per month or $490 per year, per organization. The first three issues are free to everyone on the list.
Not ready to pay? Fair.
Get the next 3 issues free, then decide.