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ORA Partners Portal

ORA Data Exchange Overview

The Office of Regulatory Affairs Data Exchange (ORA DX) is a unified platform to securely share information between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state and local regulatory partners. Under FDA's efforts to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, the ORA DX mission is to streamline submission of food safety regulatory data and support timely decision-making by providing access to relevant inventory, sample, and inspection information.

Participation in the ORA DX provides regulatory partners with the following benefits:

  • Increases efficient electronic data exchange between FDA and regulatory partners
  • Increases collaboration and the support of the FDA vision for Mutual Reliance
  • Reduces dual data entry in regulatory partner system and FDA system

The ORA DX consists of two systems that facilitate secure, electronic data exchange:

  • ORA Partners Portal (ORAPP), a website that allows FDA regulatory partners to view and submit regulatory data through a comprehensive web-based user interface.
  • National Food Safety Data Exchange (NFSDX), a system-to-system web service that provides bi-directional communication between FDA IT systems and regulatory partner IT systems.

Also available is the Enhanced DX Client, a downloadable desktop application that allows regulatory partners to submit sample data to FDA.

The ORA Data Exchange has three main capabilities: Inventory Data Sharing, Inspection Data Sharing, and Sample Data Sharing. Inventory Data Sharing: Provides regulatory partners robust inventory related capabilities to search and view FDA’s inventory, share inventory with other regulatory partners and exchange Produce Safety Farm Inventory with FDA. Inspection Data Sharing: Regulatory partners can submit Contracted Inspection results including attachments and Non-Contracted Inspection results to FDA, thereby reducing double data entry. Sample Data Sharing: Provides regulatory partners flexible options for submitting Sample Collection, Analysis and Receipt data leading to improved information sharing for faster compliance decisions by FDA.

Recent Releases

Release 8.2 – Sample Enhancements (March 2021)

  • State Collected Samples - NFSDX, ORAPP, and Enhanced DX Client:
    • Updated the Sample Receipt and Analysis Excel Template to include look-up abbreviations list of values (LOVs) and dynamic dropdown lists
    • Includes additional data elements "Genus" and "Analysis Status"
Note: The new Sample Receipt and Analysis Excel Template (v 2.2) and the Sample Collection Excel Template (v 1.1) are now available in ORAPP for download and must be used for Samples data submission to FDA.

Release 8.1 – Contracted Inspection Attachments (January 2021)

  • NFSDX – Regulatory partners can:
    • Submit attachments for an inspection
    • Delete attachments from an inspection
    • Retrieve a list of attachments associated with an inspection

Release 8.0 – State Collected Samples (December 2020)

  • ORAPP – Regulatory partners can:
    • Upload Sample Collection data files for samples collected by regulatory partners/laboratories
Note: an Excel template and guidance materials are provided (via download) to regulatory partners to support the creation of the Sample Collection data files.
  • NFSDX & Enhanced DX Client – Regulatory partners can:
    • Submit Sample Collection data for samples collected by regulatory partners/laboratories

Release 7.0 – FDA Collected Samples (August 2020)

  • ORAPP – Regulatory partners/laboratories can:
    • Upload Sample Receipt and Analysis data files
Note: an Excel template and guidance materials are provided (via download) to regulatory partners to support the creation of the Sample Receipt and Analysis data files.
  • NFSDX & Enhanced DX Client – Regulatory partners/laboratories can:
    • Submit Sample Receipt and Analysis data