Pesticides

Food imports have tripled during the past 15 years; today, nearly half of the fresh fruits and vegetables eaten in the United States during the winter are imported. About 4 percent of imported produce tested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the 1980s contained banned pesticide residues, but some shipments were still distributed to grocery stores by importers who were not deterred by existing penalties. Although FDA told importers to return these shipments to the U.S. Customs Service for supervised export or destruction, about a third of the shipments were not returned in the four FDA districts GAO reviewed. Government records show that distribution of these foods by importers is a long-standing problem. Importers probably distribute adulterated foods because the consequences for doing so are slight; FDA rarely prosecutes and the damages assessed by Customs are low enough that importers can still make a profit. To spot more adulterated shipments with the same level of resources, FDA should: (1) ensure that shipments of the same food from the same grower arriving with sampled shipments are not distributed until the sample is determined to be free of prohibited pesticides, with a reasonable deadline for the test results to be given to Customs and the importer; and (2) delegate to the district offices greater responsibility to initiate automatic detention.

GAO found that: (1) FDA has increased its testing of shipments for pesticide residues despite the fact that its staffing has not kept pace with the increased volume of inspections; (2) FDA-refused shipments still reach U.S. markets because importers retain possession of suspect shipments; (3) FDA lacks the authority to enforce fines to importers for distributing adulterated food, and even when fines are paid, the monetary consequences to the importer are not heavy; (4) bond agreements between importers and the Customs Service are the main enforcement tool; (5) liquidated damages are not meant to be a penalty for endangering public health and are not high enough, and importers often can avoid, reduce, or postpone paying damages; (6) the law provides only for criminal penalties, which are harder to obtain; (7) a few repeat offenders are responsible for the majority of violations and do not have to place their shipments in controlled storage; and (8) FDA could more effectively use its limited resources by controlling food shipments that are deemed more probable of violating regulations, restricting distribution of companion shipments of sampled shipments, and expediting the implementation of automatic detention on suspect importers.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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