FDA published their Reportable Food Registry Data Dashboard, an interactive tool to analyze data collected by the Reportable Food Registry. FDA first rolled out the RFR in 2010, and with that data, FDA issued annual reports on hazards identified in food and feed that were reported to the agency via the electronic portal.
The Reportable Food Registry (RFR) is “an electronic portal by which reports about instances of reportable food must be submitted to FDA within 24 hours by responsible parties and may be submitted by public health officials. These reports may be primary, the initial submission about a reportable food, or subsequent, a report by either a supplier (upstream) or a recipient (downstream) of a food or food ingredient for which a primary report has been submitted.” "Registered Food Facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States under section 415(a) of the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 350d) are required to report when there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, an article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals."
The RFR Data Dashboard allows one to access this data to analyze particular commodities, countries of origin, and specific hazards. There are 6 primary search headings:
- RFR Primary Entries Summary - How many entries are occurring each year with the top three commodities and top three hazards.
- RFR Primary Entries by Commodity - One can select a commodity and see the number of entries per year and hazard type of those entries, and the country where those hazards originated.. By selecting a year on the graph, one can see the hazard type or country for that given year.
- Human and Animal Food RFR Primary Entries - Allows one to see entries by human food or animal food.
- RFR Primary Entries by Hazard - here one can select a specific hazard, Pathogenic E. coli for example, and see the number of reports issued each year, the commodities involved, and the country. Once can further select a year and see the data specific for that year. So for the Pathogenic E. coli, there were 5 entries in 2019, and each of those entries were a different commodity item.
- Top 5 Hazards Breakdown RFR Primary Entries - allows one to look the top three hazards - Allergens, Salmonella, and Listeria by year and commodity. In 2019 there were 56 allergen reported issues with milk and egg being the two most reported allergen types.
- RFR Primary Entries by Country - This allows one to see reports for food or feed originating out of a given country. For example, Brazil has had 2 reports in 2019 for Salmonella, both from Animal feed/pet food.
The RFR Dash Board (https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-track-agency-wide-program-performance/fda-track-reportable-food-registry-data-dashboard) is just one of the Dashboards that one can use as part of developing their Food Safety Plan.
There is the FDA Data Dashboard (https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/transparency/fda-data-dashboard)
that allows one to search a given firm to see their inspection information. (not a bad idea to check your own firm's data to make sure it is correct).
There is the FSMA Dashboard that detail PC and GMP inspection data. https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-track-agency-wide-program-performance/pc-and-cgmp-measures
https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fdas-faster-and-easier-reportable-food-registry-process-will-lead-better-data-and-safer-food-supply
The FDA’s Faster and Easier Reportable Food Registry Process Will Lead to Better Data and a Safer Food Supply
Constituent Update
January 5, 2022
The FDA has published a new, interactive public data dashboard that allows anyone to view historical data from the Reportable Food Registry (RFR), an essential tool that the food industry uses to alert the FDA of a dangerous food product. The new dashboard, which will be updated annually, makes it faster and easier to get better data from the RFR compared to the past. The RFR program helps our state and local partners better determine when to issue health alerts, take steps to remove harmful food from the market, and target enforcement efforts, such as sampling assignments.
A Faster and Easier Way to Obtain and Analyze Data from the FDA
Our new RFR public data dashboard contains 10 years of data from September 2009 to 2019 and covers 28 commodities and 20 food safety hazards. Unlike the past RFR annual reports previously used to publish data, the new dashboard allows users to interact with the data points to gather more customized information at any time to find answers to their specific questions. Users can modify the graphs and charts and view trends based on selected commodities, hazards, and time frames. The dashboard is available as part of the FDA-TRACK program, the FDA's agency-wide performance management system.
In publishing this dashboard, the FDA is taking additional steps to increase public data access by including a downloadable, raw RFR data set to enable stakeholders to perform their own analyses.
In modernizing how people can view and use RFR data, the interactive dashboard:
Increases access and transparency with state and local partners who use the data to better workplan and determine how to target their own sampling assignments to concerns that are more common in their area;
Allows industry to educate themselves on trends and identify areas where additional good manufacturing practices and preventive controls could better prevent future outbreaks or contamination in their products; and
Offers a robust data set to researchers and others who are interested in studying the safety of our food system.
Overall, this will be a more efficient, less resource intensive process for FDA to provide data.
Coming Up: A Faster and Easier Way to Report to the FDA
When companies discover a food product is dangerous or potentially deadly, they must submit a reportable food report to the FDA using an electronic portal. In 2022, the FDA will begin a project to allow companies to export the RFR data from their internal business systems or from third party applications directly to the portal with just a click of a button. Once our work is complete, human and animal food companies will be able to upload RFR reports as structured electronic files in Extensible Markup Language format (XML) to the Safety Reporting Portal. The food information, including any associated recall data, will then go simultaneously to experts and systems related to both the RFR and Recalls Programs.
We anticipate that this update will be available in 2023.
Transparency and Collaboration
Both of these efforts reflect significant progress towards creating a safer and more digital food system, which is a key goal of our New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative. They also represent our commitment to transparency, efficiency, and collaboration with stakeholders from all points in the American food supply. Additionally, the new reporting process for industry will address concerns about the need for enhanced data connectivity that food retailers, processors, and technology providers have expressed for several years. This enhanced feature will allow industry to provide data more quickly and save a tremendous amount of time for both industry and FDA employees and will allow us to reallocate resources to implementing future improvements.
Additional Resources
FDA-TRACK: Reportable Food Registry Data Dashboard
Reportable Food Registry for Industry
Reportable Food Registry Annual Report
FDA-TRACK: Food Safety Dashboards
New Era of Smarter Food Safety
Data Modernization Action Plan
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