On September 9-10, 2026, PFT convened a workshop to explore practical implementation challenges and opportunities related to FSMA 204 food traceability requirements. The workshop was open to PFT members and non-members with FSMA 204 compliance obligations. The key objectives of the workshop were:
The workshop demonstrated meaningful alignment across industry and FDA regarding the ultimate goals of traceability implementation. The greatest opportunity lies in improving the speed and effectiveness of traceback investigations through stronger collaboration, higher-quality data, and more reliable business processes.
PFT will be hosting two stakeholder roundtables with FDA in 2026 through the Public-Private Partnership.
These roundtables will provide an opportunity for stakeholders and FDA to engage in cross-sector dialogue on Food Traceability Rule implementation of lot-level tracking, challenges facing regulated entities, and potential solutions.
The listening sessions will primarily be open to PFT members, which include trade associations representing thousands of individual companies, as well as individual industry and technical expert members. PFT will also include additional organizations outside of PFT’s membership to ensure that perspectives across all industries impacted by the Rule are present, along with organizations of different sizes.
PFT’s role in the roundtable sessions is to facilitate information exchange between stakeholders and FDA. PFT, as an organization, will not advocate for specific policy positions with FDA as part of this process.
The Partnership for Food Traceability (PFT) is an independent, sector-neutral nonprofit Public-Private Partnership developing a shared, overarching vision for food traceability across the supply chain, allowing for streamlined implementation of compliant traceability systems. Through the formal Public-Private Partnership structure, PFT provides a forum in which FDA and industry can work together, with FDA’s technical assistance and advisement, to coordinate food traceability approaches across diverse supply chain sectors to comply with the Food Traceability Rule, with the goal of effectively removing potentially contaminated products from the market more rapidly. PFT’s membership spans producers (including growers and harvesters), manufacturers and processors, distributors (including packagers, wholesalers, holders, and shippers), retailers and grocers, and restaurants across diverse commodities (including produce, seafood, cheese, packaged, and prepared food). Membership includes industry members, trade associations, technology vendors, and technical experts.
For questions regarding this town hall, please contact [email protected].
