The US Food and Drug Administration has added a Rational Questionnaire incorporating additional data elements to its Reportable Food Registry, in an effort to improve the registry's information gathering capabilities and enhance food safety.
The Reportable Food Registry is an electronic portal for industry, including petfood industry members such as petfood and treat manufacturers, to report when there is reasonable probability that an article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences, allowing FDA to track patterns in animal feed and petfood and target inspections.
Additional data elements now part of the Reportable Food Registry in the Rational Questionnaire include:
• The reason the food has been determined to be reportable (agent)
• A description of the root cause of the reportable food
• 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 date(s) 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 lifestage 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
• Whether the responsible party has notified all of its immediate subsequent recipients (customers) for the reportable food
Providing this information to the registry is currently optional, but will become mandatory later in the year.