FDA's food traceability rule exempts a long list of businesses and foods, in whole or in part. The ones a small business is most likely to meet: farms selling $25,000 or less of produce a year, retail food establishments and restaurants selling $250,000 or less of food a year, foods you cook or otherwise put through a "kill step" (you keep lighter records), farm-direct sales, and produce that's rarely eaten raw. The exemptions are in 21 CFR 1.1305. Below is each one in plain words, and four small businesses worked through.
The short version
- First check whether you handle a food on the Food Traceability List at all. If not, the rule doesn't apply.
- Then check the size exemptions: small produce farms, small egg farms, small retail food establishments and restaurants.
- Then the processing ones: a kill step, or changing the food so it's no longer on the list, with lighter records.
- Being exempt from the rule's spreadsheet format isn't the same as being exempt from the rule.
- Exempt or not, the habits behind it (lot codes at receiving and on batches) are what TaroStack keeps for you.
First question: is your food on the list?
The rule only covers foods on FDA's Food Traceability List, and foods that contain a listed food in the same form it's listed in, fresh for example (FDA). The list includes soft cheeses, shell eggs, nut butters, fresh cucumbers, herbs, leafy greens, melons, peppers, sprouts, tomatoes and tropical tree fruits, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, several kinds of fish and shellfish, and refrigerated ready-to-eat deli salads. If nothing you make, pack or hold is on it, you can stop here.
The exemptions, in plain words
From 21 CFR 1.1305, read September 30, 2026:
| Who or what | Exemption | What you still keep |
|---|---|---|
| Produce farms with $25,000 or less in produce sales a year (3-year average, inflation-adjusted), or not covered by the produce safety rule | Full, for the produce they grow | |
| Shell egg producers with fewer than 3,000 laying hens at a farm | Full, for those eggs | |
| Other raw farm products, $25,000 or less a year | Full | |
| Farms selling or donating food directly to consumers | Full, for that food | |
| Food produced and packaged on a farm, still in its packaging, labeled with the farm's name, address and phone | Full | |
| Produce that gets commercial processing to reduce pathogens, under the produce rule's conditions | Full | |
| Food you put through a kill step | Partial | Receiving records for the food, and a record of the kill step |
| Food you change so it's no longer on the list | Partial | Receiving records for the food |
| Food you receive after someone else's kill step or change | Full | |
| Food a later business will kill-step or change, under a written agreement renewed every 3 years | Partial | The written agreement |
| Produce listed as rarely consumed raw | Full | |
| Raw bivalve shellfish under the National Shellfish Sanitation Program | Full | |
| Food while it's under USDA's exclusive jurisdiction (meat, poultry, egg products) | Full | |
| Commingled raw agricultural commodities | Partial | Previous source and next recipient, if you're FDA-registered |
| Retail food establishments and restaurants with $250,000 or less in food sales a year | Full | |
| Retailers and restaurants buying direct from a farm | Partial | The farm's name and address, for 180 days |
| Retailers and restaurants making one-off purchases from each other | Partial | A record such as a receipt |
| Farm to school and farm to institution programs | Partial | The farm's name and address, for 180 days |
| Fishing vessels | Partial | Previous source and next recipient, if FDA-registered |
| Transporters, nonprofit food establishments, food for personal use, food held for individual consumers, food for research | Full |
On top of that, FDA granted an exemption in February 2026 for certain cottage cheese made under the Grade "A" Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (Federal Register).
The dollar thresholds are averaged over the previous three years and adjusted for inflation from 2020. FDA's inflation-adjusted values page says it intends to post the traceability rule's adjusted values in a future update (FDA), so until it does, treat the round numbers as a starting point and check the page.
The exemption that's only about the format
Separately, the rule says that when FDA asks for records during an outbreak or recall, they have to come as an electronic sortable spreadsheet, unless you're a farm with $250,000 or less in sales, a retail food establishment or restaurant with $1 million or less, or another business with $1 million or less in food sales, all averaged over three years and inflation-adjusted (21 CFR 1.1455(c)(3)). Those businesses can hand over the records in another form. They still have to keep them.
This is general information, not legal advice; FDA and your inspector have the last word on whether an exemption applies to you.
Four small businesses, worked through
| Business | On the list? | Exemption | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| A farm stand selling $18,000 of tomatoes and herbs a year, all to shoppers | Yes, fresh tomatoes and herbs | Small produce farm, and direct to consumers | Exempt |
| A café selling $220,000 of food a year, using fresh herbs and leafy greens | Yes | Small retail food establishment or restaurant | Exempt |
| A kitchen making cooked, jarred salsa from fresh tomatoes and peppers, sold to stores | Yes, at receiving | Kill step | Partial: keep receiving records for the tomatoes and peppers, and a record of each cook |
| A kitchen making fresh salsa for three grocery stores, $600,000 a year | Yes: the tomatoes, peppers and cilantro stay fresh | None of the size ones | Covered, but can give FDA the records in a form other than the sortable spreadsheet |
The last one surprises people. Being small enough to skip the spreadsheet format doesn't take you out of the rule: the fresh salsa kitchen still records receiving, transformation and shipping, with traceability lot codes. That kitchen's full records, with a template, are in the food traceability Excel template. As for when: 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. The history is in the FSMA 204 compliance date.
Where this stops working
Deciding you're exempt is a single afternoon. Staying sure is harder: sales grow past a threshold, a new product uses fresh herbs instead of dried, a customer asks for a kill-step agreement, or you start selling to a distributor. And the partial exemptions still leave records to keep, like the receiving record and the record of every cook, which have to be there for every batch, not most of them. And many businesses outside this rule still keep one-step-back, one-step-forward records under an older one, explained in one up one back traceability.
How TaroStack does it
Whether you're covered, partly covered or exempt, the records underneath are the same ones TaroStack keeps as you work. Deliveries are received as lots, with the supplier's lot code or your own, so the receiving records for a kill-step exemption are there for every delivery. A batch can carry your own checklist fields, such as the cook temperature and time, with a sign-off, so the record of the kill step lives on the batch it belongs to. And because each batch notes which lots went in, and each shipment notes which lot went out, the full trace is ready if your business, or the rule, changes.
TaroStack doesn't decide whether you're exempt, and it doesn't make anyone compliant. It keeps the records, and every list exports to CSV when someone asks for them.
Lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month; recording batches with your own checklists is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.