FDA Foreign Food Inspections Fell 35% as Cyclospora Outbreak Exposed Oversight Gaps

AP found FDA inspections of foreign food facilities have fallen nearly 35% since 2019, including at a Mexican farm linked by U.S. officials to a nationwide Cyclospora outbreak. Inspectors arrived a month after the lettuce recall and had not visited the farm since 2019.

Policy Stakes

The inspection decline predates Trump but continued amid staffing losses, flat funding and administrative cuts. FDA has never approached Congress’s foreign-inspection target and delayed produce-traceability rules again, leaving outbreaks harder to detect and trace across global supply chains.