WASHINGTON – The US Food and Drug Administration announced it has added new data elements to agency’s Reportable Food Registry (RFR). The food industry and public health officials use the RFR to report food/feed items that are hazardous to human or animal health.

Currently, providing information in response to the new data elements is voluntary. However, responses to these elements will become mandatory later in 2012, FDA said. The additional elements are:

• The reason the food has been determined to be reportable (agent);
• A description of the root cause of the reportable food (if applicable);
• A brief justification of the process used to determine which product(s), lot(s), or batch(es) were affected;
• Whether or not the submitter believes all of the reportable food has been removed from commerce;
• A brief description of the corrective actions taken to avoid repeating the reportable event;
• The commodity type of the reportable food;
• The dates that the product was manufactured;
• Whether or not the reportable food underwent treatment to reduce microorganisms;
• A brief description of the microbial reduction treatment;
• Whether or not a bacterial isolate is available for FDA collection;
• For reportable foods intended for animal consumption, the animal species that the reportable food was intended to be consumed by;
• For reportable foods intended for animal consumption, the life stage of the animal that the reportable food was intended to be consumed by;
• Whether the responsible party has notified all of its immediate previous sources (suppliers) of the reportable food (if applicable); and
• Whether the responsible party has notified all of its immediate subsequent recipients (customers) for the reportable food (if applicable).