We think our food is safe, but according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the FDA is lagging in its food safety inspection efforts.
Perhaps the most alarming finding is that the FDA has not met food inspection targets since 2018 (gasp). To top that, the FDA doesn’t have goals to ensure any of its inspections are effective at keeping our domestic food supply safe. Yikes.
The FDA hasn’t been able to inspect all “high-risk facilities” (which it does to prevent foodborne illnesses) in a timely manner. Meanwhile, foreign facility inspections are also behind due to being understaffed and having unrealistic goals.
Back to foodborne illnesses: According to the CDC, “roughly one in six Americans (or 48M people) gets sick, 128K are hospitalized, and 3K die of foodborne diseases,” each year.
Do you want fries with your E.coli? One of the most recent newsworthy foodborne illness outbreaks involved slivered onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. The E. coli onions made 104 sick, and one person died.
By the numbers: The FDA didn’t inspect 7% of high-risk domestic facilities by its deadline in 2019. In 2020 and 2021 this number rose to 40% and 49%. During these two years, the FDA failed to conduct inspections at non-high-risk facilities to the tune of about 74%.
Should vs. reality: Between 2018 and 2023, the FDA should have completed 19,200 inspections of foreign facility inspections. It only completed 917 annually during that time.
The FDA says it needs more help, mentioning its 432 investigators are only 90% of the full-time equivalent ceiling. Additionally, the organization says foodborne illness outbreaks—aka emergencies—steal resources from routine inspections.
Where this goes: The GAO says Congress should determine the number of foreign food facility inspections needed to ensure food safety for imported foods on a yearly basis.
Furthermore, it recommends the FDA find the appropriate size and workload for its foreign investigator cadre, implement more procedures to reduce cases of “attempted” inspections at domestic food facilities, and come up with a formal performance management process focused on food safety inspection efforts.