diff --git a/tfx/components/util/tfxio_utils.py b/tfx/components/util/tfxio_utils.py
index ca905666226..4b54abfb2d3 100644
--- a/tfx/components/util/tfxio_utils.py
+++ b/tfx/components/util/tfxio_utils.py
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 from tensorflow_metadata.proto.v0 import schema_pb2
 
 
-_SUPPORTED_PAYLOAD_FORMATS = ['parquet', 'tfrecords_gzip']
+_SUPPORTED_FILE_FORMATS = {example_gen_pb2.FileFormat.FORMAT_PARQUET, example_gen_pb2.FileFormat.FORMAT_TFRECORDS_GZIP}
 # TODO(b/162532479): switch to support List[str] exclusively, once tfx-bsl
 # post-0.22 is released.
 OneOrMorePatterns = Union[str, List[str]]
@@ -245,12 +245,12 @@ def get_data_view_decode_fn_from_artifact(
 def make_tfxio(
     file_pattern: OneOrMorePatterns,
     telemetry_descriptors: List[str],
-    payload_format: Union[str, int],
+    payload_format: Union[example_gen_pb2.PayloadFormat, int],
     data_view_uri: Optional[str] = None,
     schema: Optional[schema_pb2.Schema] = None,
     read_as_raw_records: bool = False,
     raw_record_column_name: Optional[str] = None,
-    file_format: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None) -> tfxio.TFXIO:
+    file_format: Optional[Union[example_gen_pb2.FileFormat, List[example_gen_pb2.FileFormat]]] = None) -> tfxio.TFXIO:
   """Creates a TFXIO instance that reads `file_pattern`.
 
   Args:
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ def make_tfxio(
       that column will be the raw records. Note that not all TFXIO supports this
       option, and an error will be raised in that case. Required if
       read_as_raw_records == True.
-    file_format: file format string for each file_pattern. Only 'tfrecords_gzip'
+    file_format: file format for each file_pattern. Only 'tfrecords_gzip'
       and 'parquet' are supported for now.
 
   Returns:
@@ -294,10 +294,10 @@ def make_tfxio(
             f'The length of file_pattern and file_formats should be the same.'
             f'Given: file_pattern={file_pattern}, file_format={file_format}')
       else:
-        if any(item in _SUPPORTED_PAYLOAD_FORMATS for item in file_format):
+        if any(item in _SUPPORTED_FILE_FORMATS for item in file_format):
           raise NotImplementedError(f'{file_format} is not supported yet.')
     else:  # file_format is str type.
-      if file_format in _SUPPORTED_PAYLOAD_FORMATS:
+      if file_format in _SUPPORTED_FILE_FORMATS:
         raise NotImplementedError(f'{file_format} is not supported yet.')
 
   if read_as_raw_records:
diff --git a/tfx/proto/example_gen.proto b/tfx/proto/example_gen.proto
index 98c01b5c8c1..5eed00daf7b 100644
--- a/tfx/proto/example_gen.proto
+++ b/tfx/proto/example_gen.proto
@@ -125,7 +125,11 @@ enum FileFormat {
   // Indicates TFRecords format files with gzip compression.
   FORMAT_TFRECORDS_GZIP = 5;
 
-  reserved 1 to 4, 6 to max;
+  // Indicates parquet format files in any of the supported compressions.
+  // https://arrow.apache.org/docs/python/parquet.html#compression-encoding-and-file-compatibility
+  FORMAT_PARQUET = 6;
+
+  reserved 1 to 4, 7 to max;
 }
 
 // Specification of the output of the example gen.