Food Traceability Excel Template for FSMA 204 (Free)

A food traceability template for FSMA 204 needs three record tabs: what you received, what you made from it, and what you shipped. There's one row per lot on each, in the columns the rule lists for that event, so the whole thing sorts and filters. Add a written traceability plan and a list of your locations and you have the records the rule asks a small maker for. Below is that workbook, a salsa kitchen's week filled in, and how to trace one lot through it.

The short version

• The rule covers foods on FDA's Food Traceability List, and foods made with them while they're still in that form.
• A kitchen records three events: receiving, making (transformation) and shipping.
• Each batch you make gets its own traceability lot code, and that code travels with every shipment.
• FDA can ask for the records within 24 hours, as an electronic sortable spreadsheet unless you're small enough to be exempt from that part.
• Keep it in Excel, below. Or let the records build themselves as you work, which is what TaroStack does.

Does the rule apply to you?

It applies if you make, process, pack or hold a food on the Food Traceability List. The list includes fresh tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs and leafy greens, melons, tropical tree fruits like mango and papaya, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, soft cheeses, shell eggs, all nut butters, finfish, crustaceans, bivalves and refrigerated ready-to-eat deli salads (FDA). It also covers foods that contain a listed food, as long as the listed food stays in the same form, fresh for example.

So fresh salsa is covered: the tomatoes, jalapeños and cilantro in it are still fresh. A cooked salsa is a different case. Cooking can be a kill step, which comes with its own, smaller set of records (21 CFR 1.1305(d)(3)). There are other exemptions, including one for retail food establishments and restaurants averaging $250,000 a year or less in food sales, and they're in food traceability list exemptions.

As for the date, FDA's page (content current as of 07/24/2026) says the original compliance date was January 20, 2026, that FDA has proposed moving it to July 20, 2028, and that Congress directed FDA not to enforce the rule before then. FDA says it will comply (FDA). If a grocery buyer is already asking, that's the date to give them, and the records are easier to start in a quiet month than a busy one.

What goes on each tab

Receiving records the lot code, quantity, product, who it came from, where and when you received it, who assigned the code, and the document it came with. Shipping is the mirror image, and most of it goes to your customer too.

Transformation is the one that matters for a maker. When you make a batch from a listed food, the batch gets a new traceability lot code (21 CFR 1.1320), and you record which input lots went in and how much of each, plus the new lot's code, where and when it was made, what it is and how much you made. If you already number your batches, you're most of the way there; how to create lot numbers has a system that works.

A week in a salsa kitchen

Here's the example in the file: a two-person kitchen making fresh salsa for three grocery stores. In the week of September 21, 2026, it received two deliveries of Roma tomatoes, one case of jalapeños and three cases of cilantro, and made two batches of 60 tubs.

Receiving:

Transformation, one row per input lot:

The new lot's details repeat on each row. It looks wasteful, but it keeps the tab sortable: filter by any input lot and you see every batch it went into.

Shipping: SAL-0922 went out on September 23, 24 tubs each to Stores A and B and 12 to Store C; SAL-0924 went out on September 25, 30 tubs each to Stores A and B. Onions, lime juice and salt are in the salsa too, but they aren't on the list, so they aren't on these tabs.

Tracing one lot, in two minutes

Say the herb farm calls on Monday: the cilantro in lot CL-0922 may be contaminated. On the Trace tab, type CL-0922. The sheet answers:

• 3 cases received, and 24 bunches used, in 2 batches, so 66 of the 90 bunches should still be in the walk-in. Go and put them on hold.
• The Shipping tab now marks every delivery made from those batches: 5 shipments, 120 tubs. Store A got 54, Store B got 54 and Store C got 12. Filter the last column to YES and that's your call list, with dates and delivery note numbers.

It's one COUNTIFS, so it works in any Excel since 2007. The rest of that day is in a food mock recall example, and it's worth practicing once before it's real.

The 24-hour rule and the sortable spreadsheet

FDA can ask for your records, and you have 24 hours to provide them, or longer if FDA agrees. During an outbreak or a recall, the records have to come as an electronic sortable spreadsheet (21 CFR 1.1455(c)(3)). A sheet like this one, filtered to the lots FDA named, is that answer.

Small businesses get a break on the format, not on the records. A business other than a farm, a retailer or a restaurant, with average annual food sales of $1 million or less over the previous three years (adjusted for inflation from 2020), can provide the information in another form. It still has to keep the records, and keep them for two years.

FDA publishes its own template, a tab for each event (FDA), and says you don't have to use it. You don't have to use mine either. Mine keeps only the events a small kitchen has, and adds the trace.

This is general information, not legal advice; FDA's own pages and your inspector have the last word.

Where this stops working

The formulas are fine. The trouble is the typing. Every batch means copying lot codes off cases onto the Transformation tab, on the day, and every delivery means a row on Shipping. Miss one row and the trace has a hole in it exactly where you'll need it, because the day you get the call is never a day you remember clearly.

Two products and five stores is manageable. Eight products, a market and a distributor is hundreds of rows a month, and the comparison in inventory software vs a spreadsheet is worth ten minutes.

How TaroStack does it

The Trace tab above answers one question: where did this lot go? TaroStack answers it for every lot, without anyone filling in a Transformation tab. When the cilantro arrives, it's received as a lot with the farm's code. When the salsa is made, the batch record notes which lots of tomatoes, jalapeños and cilantro it used, because recording the batch is what takes them off the shelf. When the tubs go out, the delivery says which batch went to which store. The records build themselves as a side effect of running the kitchen.

So when the call comes, it's one recall report: which supplier lots went into which batches, which customers got them, what's still on your own shelves, and who to call. You can run timed, logged traceability drills to show a grocery buyer or an inspector that it works, and every list exports to CSV, which opens as a spreadsheet you can sort and hand over. TaroStack keeps the records the rule asks for. It doesn't make anybody compliant, and it doesn't fill in FDA's form for you.

Lots and recalls are on every plan from $49 a month. Recording batches, which is where the transformation records come from, is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, and if you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

When is the FSMA 204 compliance date?

The original date was January 20, 2026. FDA has proposed moving the compliance date to July 20, 2028, and Congress directed it not to enforce the rule before then; FDA says it will comply. More on the history in the FSMA 204 compliance date.

What is a traceability lot code?

The code that identifies one lot of a food on the list, assigned when the food is first packed, first landed from a fishing boat, or transformed. A maker assigns one to each batch it makes from a listed food, and must not assign a new one when it merely ships.

Do I need software for FSMA 204?

No. The rule asks for information, and a spreadsheet can hold it, which is why this page exists. Software earns its place when the typing does: when batches and deliveries are frequent enough that copying lot codes by hand starts to leave holes.