What the Rules Say

Utah R392-100: Which Food Code Utah Adopted, and What the State Law Behind It Says About Pests

Written for: Utah restaurant owners and managers, multi-unit operators, anyone asking which edition of the Food Code applies in Utah

Utah does not write its own restaurant code. Its food service sanitation rule, R392-100, adopts the FDA Food Code by reference, and the county health departments enforce it. This page quotes the adoption language, lists the state’s exceptions, and sets out the statutes behind the rule. The Food Code’s pest sections themselves are on the Food Code page.

The edition Utah adopted

(b) The 2022 version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Code (Food Code), Chapters 1 through 8, Annex 1 Parts 8-6 through 8-9, with the stated exceptions and amendments as established in Subsections R392-100-4(2) and R392-100-4(3). — Utah Admin. Code R392-100-4(1)(b), as reproduced by Cornell LII, read Nov. 3, 2026

The rule’s history, as the reproduction records it, shows the current adoption effective in 2023 and the latest amendment effective May 8, 2024. FDA’s own adoption page, current as of October 29, 2026, lists Utah at the 2022 edition. FDA has since published a Supplement to the 2022 Food Code and lists a Food Code 2026; whether “The 2022 version” includes the Supplement is not stated in the rule text and is an open item.

A note on the copy quoted here. On the date this page was verified, the State of Utah’s administrative rules website returned an error for R392-100, and the text was checked against the Cornell Legal Information Institute’s reproduction instead. That is a secondary source. The page will be re-verified against the official text when the state’s site is reachable, and the date above will change when it is.

What Utah changed, and what it did not

R392-100-4(2) lists the Food Code provisions Utah does not adopt, and R392-100-4(3) lists the provisions Utah amends. The exceptions are 5-203.15(B), 5-402.11(B), (C) and (D), 8-302.14, 8-304.11(K), Annex 1 8-909-20 and Annex 1 8-911.10(B). The amendments include 6-202.14 (toilet rooms) and 6-501.115(B) (live animals), among others.

None of the pest sections is on either list: 6-202.13, 6-202.15, 6-501.111, 6-501.112, 7-201.11, 7-202.11, 7-202.12, 7-206.11, 7-206.12 and 7-206.13 apply in Utah as FDA wrote them.

The statutes behind the rule

The rule cites two sections of the Utah Code as its authority. The first tells the state health department to set minimum sanitation rules for restaurants:

The department shall establish and enforce, or provide for the enforcement of minimum rules of sanitation necessary to protect the public health, including rules necessary for the design, construction, operation, maintenance, or expansion of: (1) a restaurant or a place where food or drink is handled, sold, or served to the public; — Utah Code 26B-7-402(1), effective May 1, 2024

A separate section directs the department to make rules about pests themselves, and it defines a pest and a vector:

“Pest” means a noxious, destructive, or troublesome organism whether plant or animal, when found in and around places of human occupancy, habitation, or use which threatens the public health or well-being of the people within the state. — Utah Code 26B-7-405(1)(a), effective May 3, 2023

“Vector” means any organism, such as insects or rodents, that transmits a pathogen that can affect public health. — Utah Code 26B-7-405(1)(b), effective May 3, 2023

The department shall adopt rules to provide for the protection of the public health by controlling or preventing the spread of vector-borne diseases and infections and to control or reduce pests by the elimination of insanitary conditions which may include but not be limited to breeding areas, shelter, harborage or sources of food associated with such diseases or pests. — Utah Code 26B-7-405(2), effective May 3, 2023

Notice what the statute puts first: not pesticide, but “the elimination of insanitary conditions,” breeding areas, shelter, harborage and food. That is the same order the Food Code uses, and the same order this site uses on every pest page.

And the local health departments, which do the inspecting, are empowered to enforce all of it:

(a) subject to the provisions in Section 26A-1-108 , enforce state laws, local ordinances, department rules, and local health department standards and regulations relating to public health and sanitation, including the plumbing code administered by the Division of Professional Licensing under Title 15A, Chapter 1, Part 2 , State Construction Code Administration Act, and under Title 26B, Chapter 7, Part 4 , General Sanitation and Food Safety, in all incorporated and unincorporated areas served by the local health department; — Utah Code 26A-1-114(1)(a), effective July 1, 2026

That is the chain: the Legislature tells the state health department to set restaurant sanitation rules and directs it to make pest rules aimed at insanitary conditions; the department adopts the FDA Food Code as R392-100; the county health department enforces it, and in Salt Lake County it does so through its own regulation that follows the Food Code’s numbering (Health Regulation #5). No single statute section was found that says in so many words that the local health department issues the food permit; permit issuance is described in the rule’s own purpose section.

Utah County

Utah County adopted a separate enforcement regulation in 2026 that incorporates R392-100 and the Food Code and sets its own progressive-enforcement steps. It is on its own page: Utah County Regulation 26-01.