The Safe Food Coalition, comprising key food industry stakeholder groups and consumer protection organizations, has written a letter urging U.S. Congress to reject two bills that would undermine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Food Traceability Final Rule, fulfilling Subpart 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA 204).

The first piece of legislation, House Resolution (HR) 7563, named the Food Traceability Enhancement Act, would ease recordkeeping and traceability lot code (TLC) requirements for restaurants, retail food establishments, and warehouses by removing the requirement to maintain TLC information and provide such information to supply chain partners or to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Secretary). Additionally, the legislation would mandate the Secretary to execute at least nine pilot projects to measure the efficacy of foodborne illness outbreak investigations conducted without TLC information, and identify and evaluate low-cost food traceability technologies.