US law to investigate foodborne illness outbreaks has been delayed for 15 years

Law was set to go into effect in January, months before cyclosporiasis outbreak, but now is set for 2028

Congress passed a law to help federal agencies investigate outbreaks of foodborne illness – a regulation experts said could have stopped the US’s largest cyclosporiasis outbreak much sooner.

The only problem? The rule has been delayed – for 15 years, including most recently amid lobbying in 2025.

It was set to go into effect in January 2026 , months before the single-celled parasite sickened more than 24,000 people and killed two in the midwest.

“Congress recognized this issue in 2010 and asked [the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA] to develop solutions,” said Sara Sorscher, an attorney who specializes in food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. “We are now 16 years in, and we still don’t have enforcement of this rule that’s meant to deal with exactly this type of situation.”

Often called the “traceability rule”, the regulation comes from the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011, passed during the Obama administration. The regulation requires enhanced record-keeping for high-risk foods – namely, those which have a history of making people sick, such as soft cheese, leafy greens, eggs and peanut butter – “for persons who manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods”.

The promise of the traceability rule is to allow the FDA to more quickly and accurately pinpoint where tainted food came from, all the way down to the farm. However, the rule has raised the hackles of some in the food supply chain, and retailers and food manufacturers have been particularly vocal about their concerns, lobbying reports show.

“It’s pretty crazy,” said Jennifer McIntire, founder of the food safety consulting firm Food Strategy, about the lengthy implementation of the rule.

Earlier this month, a group of 11 consumer, public health and labor advocates called on Congress to speed up implementation of the rule in a letter to lawmakers – arguing this summer’s cyclospora outbreak caused a “crisis in consumer confidence”.

“It’s probably getting close to 30,000 people – 95% of all the illnesses occur in the 15 states that have Taco Bell and Taylor Farms,” said Bill Marler, a leading food safety attorney, about the cyclosporiasis outbreak. He is representing more than 400 people sickened in the outbreak, and has publicly said he supports the groups’ letter.

The heart of uncovering the culprit in a foodborne illness outbreak is the “traceback”.