Imported food requires country audits and individual inspections of foreign food facilities

U.S. audits of foreign country inspection systems for equivalency with America’s food safety regulations, such as the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Inspection Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, and the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act, don’t follow a predictable schedule. Nor do inspections of individual foreign food facilities.

The USDA and FDA have, for decades, been responsible for country audits and individual inspections of foreign food facilities. The activist group ProPublica claims that foreign inspections by FDA personnel this year have reached a “historic low” because of agency cutbacks.

For the past several years, about 15 percent to 20 percent of the food consumed in the U.S. has been imported. Certain fruits and vegetables, like bananas, coffee, and some berries, are almost entirely imported, as is most seafood.

This dependence is why USDA and FDA foreign inspections are needed for food safety.  Foreign products are often involved in outbreaks and recalls. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 gives the FDA the power to hold foreign food producers to the same safety standards as domestic ones.  Since the 2002 Bioterrorism Act, the FDA has required foreign food facilities to register with the agency and to provide advance notice of shipments of food imported into the United States.

Foreign food inspections fell off during the pandemic and were returning to more normal levels until the current staff cutbacks. Cutbacks in travel support reportedly have left foreign inspectors scrambling to make their own air and hotel arrangements and waiting for government reimbursements.

In July, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service provided Chile with a final inspection report for in-country work conducted from January 27 to February 13, 2025. 

“The purpose of the audit was to verify whether Chile’s food safety inspection system governing meat and poultry products remains equivalent to that of the United States, with the ability to export products that are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and correctly labeled and packaged,” according to the report.

Chile currently exports raw chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, and pork, as well as not-ready-to-eat processed chicken, to the United States.

The audit focused on six system equivalence components and did not identify any deficiencies that represented an immediate threat to public health. 

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