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The FDA, failing the nation, conducted fewer than one-twentieth of the foreign inspections required by law over the past decade. {CBS News 12 August}
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-farms-mexico-fda-inspection-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/
Predictably, the farm in Mexico linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak had not been inspected since 2019. Do not expect any improvement any time soon — only further deterioration.
FTA: The Food and Drug Administration conducted just under 1,000 foreign food safety inspections in 2025, and the farm in Mexico believed to be at the center of the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. was not one of them.
A federal law enacted to prevent diseased and dirty food from reaching Americans' plates requires the FDA to carry out nearly 20 times that many foreign inspections each year. But the FDA hasn't come close to meeting the congressional mandate — or even 10% of it — in the 10 years it has been in place, spanning administrations led by both political parties.
FDA officials have described the requirement as unrealistic, but have never asked Congress to revise it. A lower foreign inspection target the agency deemed necessary to safeguard foreign imports is still nearly five times higher than the number of inspections conducted last year.
Congress, meanwhile, has not increased the agency's food safety budget to outpace or keep up with inflation, and widespread layoffs during the first year of President Trump's second term squeezed resources further.
The rate of inspections has gotten markedly worse amid those reductions, with foreign food safety inspections falling by 29% from 2024. Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's inspection count was the lowest since 2011. Early numbers for 2026 show that the agency is on track to inspect a similar number this year.
🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈
