Dive Brief:
- Fish and seafood made up the largest percentage of the FDA's import refusals from 2005 to 2013 at 20.5%, according to a recent report. But if fruit and fruit products (10.5%) and vegetable and vegetable products (16.1%) had been combined into one general produce category, its total at 26.6% would have been the highest.
- The most common reasons for refusals of both seafood and fruit were sanitary violations or "filth," and for vegetables, most refusals came from unsafe pesticide residue.
- Mexico, India, and China were the three countries with the highest number of refusals, and each had their own category of foods that was refused most often (vegetables from Mexico, spices from India, and seafood from China).
Dive Insight:
FDA can only inspect about 1% of all shipments, so it uses import refusals as a primary border enforcement tool. Though the volume of food imports to the U.S. is rising, the number of FDA import refusals has stayed relatively the same, according to the report.
The numbers themselves aren't surprising. For the most part, researchers point to a correlation between high numbers of refusals and the products and countries that make up high percentages of imports to the U.S. Mexico is one of the U.S.'s top trading partners (along with Canada), so the number of refusals is likely to be higher to reflect the higher number of imports. India and China are also the country's top exporters in their respective categories. In each of the three countries' categories with the most refusals, the percentage of refusals hovered around just under one-third.
Manufacturers using any of these imported products are being vigilant of potential safety infractions because the risks are higher. The FDA is catching infractions, but the responsibility falls to the manufacturers too if they want to avoid potentially costly and damaging recalls.