The 41°F rule comes from the FDA Food Code, but the Food Code is a model document: it only binds you in the version your state adopted. The FDA tracks adoption itself, and its report is a stranger read than you would expect. States are running editions published anywhere from 2022 back to 1995, and one state never adopted any of them. Here is the map, from FDA's own 2023 adoption report (the latest with a full per-state breakdown, published May 2024), with the agency's newer topline noted below.
The table: your state's edition
| Edition | States |
|---|---|
| 2022 (current) | Colorado, Connecticut, Mississippi, Pennsylvania |
| 2017 | Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington |
| 2013 | Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming |
| 2009 | District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee |
| 2005 | Alaska, New Jersey |
| 2001 | Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Vermont |
| 1995 | South Dakota |
| None | California (writes its own CalCode instead) |
Where a state has multiple food agencies on different editions (Florida, Georgia, New York, and several others), the table follows FDA's convention of counting the agency on the most recent version; restaurants and retail stores in those states can genuinely answer to different editions depending on which agency licenses them. The report's own words on the leaders: "Three States (Connecticut, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania)... are already in the optimal level: they adopt as soon as the new FDA Food Code... is released."
What the spread actually means for an equipment owner
- The 41°F cold-holding line is stable across modern editions. Whether your state runs 2009, 2013, 2017, or 2022, the Sec. 3-501.16 holding temperatures and the date-marking framework are the same machinery we documented in the 41°F rule guide. Your refrigeration compliance story does not change at most state lines.
- The old-edition states are the ones to check locally. Indiana, Louisiana, New York, and Vermont run the 2001 edition; South Dakota runs 1995, ten editions behind. Older editions differ in real ways (date marking, allergen provisions, cooling parameters), so in these states the local health department's actual rule text, not the current FDA PDF, is the binding document.
- California is its own country. It is the only state that adopted no FDA Food Code at all, codifying its own CalCode in the Health and Safety Code instead, and landing on the same 135°F/41°F numbers anyway (HSC 113996, quoted in our 41°F guide).
- Inspectors enforce the adopted edition, not the newest one. If you operate in multiple states, your equipment standard is effectively the strictest edition you touch, and your paperwork standard varies state by state.
A note on report vintage
The per-state table above is FDA's 2023 adoption report, the most recent with a complete state-by-state breakdown. FDA's live adoption tracker already shows movement since: "11 state agencies in 7 states have adopted the most recent version (2022 version), representing 16.06% of the U.S. population," meaning roughly three more states have joined the 2022 tier since the granular report was compiled. The report also notes Georgia and Missouri agencies "are still in progress with intent to adopt the FDA 2022 Food Code." If your state sits near a boundary in this table, confirm with your local health department; adoption is a moving target and this page states its source dates on purpose.
Sources: FDA, Adoption of the FDA Food Code by State and Territorial Agencies (2023 report, modified May 23, 2024), read in full from the official PDF, per-state edition lists transcribed verbatim; and FDA's live adoption tracker (independently re-fetched). Per our methodology, both source dates are stated inline.