Washington ? A company plans to begin selling a computer ID chip that can be embedded beneath people’s skin, now that the Food and Drug Administration has said it will not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data.

Applied Digital Solutions Inc. designed the VeriChip about the size of a grain of rice to hold information that could be read with special electronic scanners. The company has touted the chip as a potential way to hold a person’s medical records or security codes.

Leslie and Jeff Jacobs and their son Derek, 14, could be one of the first families to be implanted with the microchip identification device VeriChip. Made by Applied Digital Solutions, the device holds information that can be read with special electronic scanners.

Applied Digital had held off sales pending discussions with the FDA of whether an implanted chip would be considered a medical device. If the chip solely provides identification, it needs no FDA clearance, the agency confirmed Thursday advice officials have long given others developing ID for tracking children, prisoners or workers with top-security clearances.

But, “if they put medical records in, we would be concerned about the use,” said the FDA’s medical device chief, Dr. David Feigal, who made clear that the agency could step in at that point.

For now, the VeriChip will bear only an identification number, said David Hughes of Technology Sourcing International, a consulting firm helping Applied Digital in its discussions with the FDA.

The company said production would begin immediately.

VeriChip emits a radio signal and has been derided by some for its “Big Brother” implications. Applied Digital has said it could prove invaluable in emergency situations when someone is either unconscious or cannot otherwise give information.

VeriChip is expected to sell for about $200. A scanner used to read information contained in the chip would cost between $1,000 and $3,000.

A doctor would insert the chip with a large needle-like device.