How to Use the Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations is the code that oversees more than 50 areas in the United States government in terms of consumer and government regulations. Using the code of federal regulations is a fairly easy process once you know what information you are seeking.
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Instructions
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How to Use the Code of Federal Regulations
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Go to the Government Printing Office website for the Code of Federal Regulations or find a printed copy of this book from a library or government office. A link to the GPO Code of Federal Regulations is listed in the Resources section.
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Click on the Quick Search window of the website and type in a few key words that indicate the type of information you are looking for. You may also browse the more than 50 sections of the Code of Federal Regulations by clicking on Browse the CFR. A list of all the sections will appear.
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Determine which revision you want to research. This largely depends on what the nature of your research is. The Code of Federal Regulations is typically revised each year on January 1. On the GPO website you may look at revisions of each section of the code dating back to 1996.
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Search or browse the section that you are interested in. For example, if you are researching Food and Drugs, you may browse parts of sections at a time by clicking on the link to the parts that you want to browse. You may also type in a key word in the Search bar to allow you to search for parts of this section that contain the key word.
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Look at the hits of your search or parts. For example, if you search the key word Tomato in the search bar, you then have dozens of reports from each year in the Food and Drug Section of the Code of Federal Regulations. You then decide in which format you would like to read the part of the report that has to do with your tomato research. The available formats are a pdf file, a txt file or a summary file of each report.
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Read the reports that you are looking for to conduct your research.
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