Friday, September 12, 2008

ERS "Food Safety and Import"

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has published, Food Safety and Imports: An Analysis of FDA Import Refusal Report. The report examines the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on refusals of food offered for importation into the United States from 1998 to 2004. The report does not necessarily show the distribution of risks because FDA has focused its import efforts on problems that appear to recur. The data show some food industries and types of violations may be consistent sources of problems both over time. The three food industry groups with the most violations were vegetables (20.6 percent of total violations), fishery and seafood (20.1 percent), and fruits (11.7 percent).

The full report is available here.