The Food and Drug Administration conducted an average of 917 inspections of foreign food facilities per year between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2023, against an annual target of 19,200 written into federal law, according to a Government Accountability Office analysis of FDA data.
The gap is not marginal. Across that period, the average represented about 5% of the target. In fiscal 2019, the agency's strongest year, it inspected 1,727 foreign facilities, about 9% of the target. The FDA has told GAO it considers the existing target unrealistic and unachievable, but has not identified an alternative figure and communicated it to Congress, something GAO first recommended in 2015.
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