Key facts
- A nationwide cyclospora outbreak tied to contaminated lettuce has heightened concerns about imported food safety.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspections of foreign food sites have decreased by nearly 35% since 2019.
- The decline in inspections is partly due to retirements and departures among FDA inspectors.
- Recent staffing cuts and reorganizations may lead to fewer inspections.
- FDA inspectors visited the implicated farm in Mexico approximately one month after a recall was initiated.
- The FDA has never met its congressionally mandated targets for international food inspections.
A nationwide outbreak of cyclospora, linked to contaminated lettuce, has intensified concerns regarding the safety of imported food. This situation highlights a broader trend of declining international inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aimed at identifying contaminated produce before it reaches American consumers.
According to agency records, FDA inspections of foreign food facilities, including the Mexican farm associated with the current outbreak, have decreased by nearly 35% since 2019. This reduction is attributed to a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues. Even prior to the pandemic, the agency had struggled to meet congressionally mandated targets for international inspections. Former senior FDA officials suggest that recent staffing cuts, reorganizations, and other administrative changes could further reduce inspections in the future.
Michael Rogers, who served for nearly 35 years in FDA inspection roles, stated that the agency's resources are insufficient to meet its oversight responsibilities for both domestic and international firms. He acknowledged that the FDA performs many functions effectively despite limited resources. The Trump administration had proposed alternative approaches, such as a pilot program of one-day inspections, which Rogers and others argue are not comparable to traditional week-long inspections that can uncover serious issues.
FDA officials maintain that inspections are only one component of ensuring imported product safety, citing border inspections, importer oversight, and sampling as other critical tools. However, the recent outbreak has exposed potential weaknesses in these alternative methods. Regulators had to retract an erroneous test result that initially claimed to find cyclospora on a lettuce sample at the border. Despite this error, FDA officials remain confident that the company's farm is the source of the parasite, though Mexican food authorities have reported no positive findings at the farm.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services indicated that the FDA's investigation is ongoing and that the agency is assessing the appropriate number of annual foreign inspections needed for comparable oversight to the U.S. food supply. Inspectors visited the Taylor Farms site in Guanajuato, Mexico, in mid-August, a month after the July 17 recall, marking their first visit since 2019, which was a peak year for foreign food inspections before the pandemic led to the withdrawal of most staff from the field. Inspections for food, drugs, and medical devices have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with foreign food inspections falling by an additional 17% to 1,140 in fiscal year 2025 compared to the previous year. Although inspectors were not directly targeted by the Trump administration's job termination plans, the elimination of over half the staff handling travel logistics has placed a greater burden on inspectors to manage their own travel arrangements.
Food safety experts, including former FDA official Frank Yiannas, have criticized the four-week delay in deploying inspectors to Mexico, especially given the scale of the outbreak. Yiannas emphasized the need for rapid response during fresh produce outbreaks due to the complex and dynamic nature of these ecosystems. The Taylor Farms recall affected thousands of packaged salad products containing iceberg lettuce, distributed to major U.S. restaurant chains. FDA figures show that companies have announced over 480 food recalls in the current fiscal year, exceeding the total for four of the previous five years.
Efforts to reform the U.S. food safety system have been ongoing since previous deadly outbreaks. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 mandated enhanced testing, training, and hygiene monitoring at farms, along with ambitious goals for FDA foreign inspections that have consistently gone unmet. The FDA is legally required to inspect over 19,000 international food sites annually, but in 2019, it only managed to inspect 1,700, less than 10% of the target. Former FDA regulators argue that the 19,000 target is unrealistic and has been inadequately funded by Congress, leading to a stagnant food budget for years. The Government Accountability Office noted that the FDA has not established an appropriate annual inspection target. A significant challenge to increasing inspections is the difficulty in recruiting and retaining inspectors, with 10% to 15% of the food inspection workforce positions chronically unfilled.