Cyclospora outbreak followed years of declining FDA foreign inspections

A nationwide outbreak of cyclospora linked to contaminated lettuce has raised safety concerns about imported food, highlighting a troubling trend: U.S. regulators have been conducting fewer international inspections to catch contaminated produce before it reaches American plates. Agency records show FDA inspections of foreign food sites, including the Mexican farm implicated in the current outbreak, have dropped nearly 35% since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic triggered a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors, a problem that persists today. The agency has consistently failed to meet its congressional mandated targets for international inspections even before COVID-19. Former FDA officials say recent staffing cuts, reorganizations, and other upheavals under the Trump administration could lead to even fewer inspections in the future.

Michael Rogers, with nearly 35 years of experience in various inspection roles within the agency, stated that the FDA simply cannot achieve what is required given its responsibility. He added that FDA continues to do many things "very well with limited resources." The Trump administration has proposed new approaches to stretch agency resources, such as one-day inspections, but FDA officials argue that they are not equivalent to traditional inspections, which can take a week or more to document serious problems.

The outbreak has also revealed the limitations of these alternative approaches. In July, regulators had to retract a faulty test result that initially claimed cyclospora was found on a sample of Taylor Farms' lettuce obtained at the border. Despite this error, FDA officials are confident the farm is the source of the parasite. However, Mexican food authorities say they have not found any positive samples or other red flags there. The FDA's investigation into the outbreak is ongoing.