Food & Water Watch Praises USDA for Increasing Transparency Around Rejected Food Imports

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter 

Washington, D.C.— “Late last week, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced it would regularly post to its website rejections for imported meat, poultry, egg products and siluriformes. Up until now, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was required to acquire this information.

“New trade deals, congressional mandates and equivalency determinations have increased meat, poultry, egg products, and siluriformes imports. With this increasing volume of imported food, our food safety agencies have had to allocate more resources to monitor the safety of imported products. Up until last Friday, Food & Water Watch was forced to file FOIA requests to find out how much of these imported products were rejected at our ports-of-entry by FSIS import inspectors. Friday’s announcement will make this information more readily available to consumers.  We applaud FSIS for this increased transparency.

“In August 2016, Food & Water Watch published data from the agency secured through a FOIA request. After filing additional FOIA requests and having discussions with FSIS officials, Food & Water Watch pursueded FSIS to put this information on its website.”

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, [email protected]