Americans’ appetite for imported food has expanded dramatically
over the past few decades. For each of the past seven years,
food imports have grown by an average of 10 percent. Currently,
between 10 and 15 percent of all food consumed by U.S.
households is imported. According to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), nearly two-thirds of the fruits and
vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed domestically come
from outside the United States. In this issue brief, the Pew
Health Group and the Center for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI) address the safety of imported seafood and raw produce,
two of the largest categories of FDA regulated food items
produced and processed abroad and then sold in the United
States. Our analysis of the rejections of these items in border
inspections over the past two years found that a substantial
amount is arriving in the United States potentially adulterated.
We follow up on this assessment by reviewing the new system for
import safety established in the recently