Report shows gaps in FDA's food import enforcement

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs more authority to oversee imported foods, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said in a new report.

There are about 189,000 registered foreign sites where food is made for sale in the US. Of those, the FDA inspected just 153 in 2008. Last year, it estimated that it would inspect 200 sites, and 600 in 2010. Meanwhile, the amount of food imported into the US is increasing, and now accounts for 15% of the total food supply, including 60% of fresh fruits and vegetables and 80% of seafood.

Specifically, GAO previously reported that FDA currently lacks mandatory recall authority for companies that do not voluntarily recall food products identified as unsafe. Limitations in FDA's food recall authorities heighten the risk that unsafe food will remain in the food supply.

The FDA has opened offices in India, China and Costa Rica, the report said, and plans to open offices in Mexico and Chile, but the agency currently examines less than 1% of imported food.

Food safety legislation - the Food Safety Modernisation Act - that would give the FDA more resources and authority to deal with the safety of imported food, including the power to order recalls, is currently awaiting a full hearing by the Senate after passing unanimously through Committee in November.

According to figures from the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention, 300,000 people in the US are hospitalised every year due to food-borne illness, and about 5,000 die.