FDA and FSIS are still primarily responsible for regulating food safety. FDA’s inspection frequency continues to be constrained by resources—in 1989, the agency inspected each plant, on average, once every 3 to 5 years. Currently, FDA plans to inspect food-processing plants once every 8 years, on average. While the agencies’ structures and approaches to food safety have remained essentially the same over the last 5 years, new congressional mandates and the growth of the food sector have resulted in increased budgets and greater workloads. FDA and FSIS were both involved in developing and overseeing these new requirements. New Initiatives Would Fundamentally Alter the Existing Food Safety System

Three federal food safety agencies are embracing HACCP programs, which will fundamentally alter the federal food safety system and industry operations for ensuring meat, poultry, and seafood safety. NMFS has adopted a voluntary HACCP-based inspection program for seafood. We believe that taken in context, the HACCP-related changes being implemented by FSIS, FDA, and NMFS do represent a fundamental shift in the federal government’s approach to food safety. In addition, we examined other reports and studies on meat, poultry, and seafood inspection and used prior GAO studies. (2) A list of the critical control points for each identified hazard.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the federal food safety system, focusing on recent federal initiatives to improve meat, poultry, and seafood safety.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are primarily responsible for regulating food safety; (2) both agencies inspect meat, poultry, and seafood plants, but are constrained by resource limitations; (3) FDA plans to inspect each food processing plant once every 8 years, or once every 5 years when it can use state inspection resources; (4) Congress has increased the mandates of both agencies since 1989, including requiring FDA and FSIS to help develop and oversee new food labelling requirements; (5) while the agencies' budgets have increased, their staffing remained constant; (6) FDA, FSIS, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which maintains a voluntary seafood inspection program, are implementing hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) programs, which emphasize the detection and prevention of microbial contamination and increase the role of industry in ensuring food safety; and (7) HACCP initiatives represent a fundamental shift in the government's approach to ensuring food safety.