“The Food and Drug Administration is really only checking about 2% of the food that’s imported into the U.S., so a lot can go unchecked and problems may not be found.”-Erik Olson, Pew Health Group

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that cuts to imported food inspections have resulted in increased illness, and it could get worse: “As our food supply becomes more global, people are eating foods from all over the world, potentially exposing them to germs from all corners of the world…”-Hannah Gould, CDC epidemiologist

From 2005 to 2010, 2,348 illnesses in the United States were linked to imported foods. Food poisoning caused by imported fish made up 45% of the cases!  In those cases the fish came from Asian sources.

The next highest cause of food illness was imported spices, most being dried peppers.

The number one cause of food poisoning is norovirus followed by salmonella. In 2008 there were 23,152 cases with 22 deaths.

To make things worse, the Republican controlled U.S. Congress has pushed new inspection rules on the FDA, yet has cut funding for inspections over the years.  Activists say that’s not going to work: “Our concern is that, with all the new requirements for imports and all the new protections that are envisioned, that unless FDA gets a bump-up in resources, it’s going to be very hard, if not impossible, for the agency to do its job.”– Erik Olson, Pew Health Group