The United States now imports nearly 59% of its fresh fruit and 36% of its fresh vegetables from abroad. Most of that supply flows north from Mexico and Latin America. That dependency has been building for two decades, and the numbers tell a clear story about where food safety pressure is heading next. Two Decades of Growth In 2004, U.S. agricultural imports from Latin America were significant but manageable in scope. By 2024, the picture looked dramatically different. Mexico

I spent years enforcing FSMA before most of the companies affected by it had finished reading the summary. So when people ask me what it actually means in practice, I try to give them a different kind of answer than they'd get from a lawyer or a trade association. The short version: FSMA changed who is responsible for food safety in the United States, and most companies still haven't fully absorbed that. The Pre-FSMA World Before 2011, FDA's posture toward food safety was mos

Most importers think the clock starts when their product hits the port. It doesn't. By the time a container is sitting on the dock, FDA has already decided how hard to look at it. I spent my first years at the agency inside the Office of Import Operations conducting Entry Review at both the LAX Airport and Port of Long Beach. I've seen hundreds of thousands of lines of products. If you want to avoid a detention, the work happens before arrival, not after the hold notice shows