A nationwide outbreak of Cyclospora, a parasite that causes severe gastrointestinal illness, has been linked to contaminated iceberg lettuce, raising questions about the safety of imported food. The outbreak has also brought attention to a growing concern: U.S. regulators are conducting fewer inspections of foreign food production sites than required, which may increase the risk of contaminated products reaching American consumers. According to records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the number of inspections of foreign food sites, including the Mexican farm tied to the outbreak, has dropped nearly 35% since 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decline has continued despite the agency’s responsibility to monitor food safety across the globe. The drop in inspections is partly due to the pandemic, which led to a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors, a trend that continues today. Even before the pandemic, the FDA had struggled to meet its legally mandated targets for international inspections. Staffing reductions and reorganizations under former President Donald Trump may further limit inspections in the future, according to former FDA officials. “The number of inspections doesn’t match the agency’s responsibilities,” said Michael Rogers, a former FDA inspector with nearly 35 years of experience. He noted that the FDA does a “very good job with limited resources,” but the challenge remains significant. The FDA has proposed new methods to stretch its resources, such as one-day inspections, but these are seen as less effective than traditional inspections that can take weeks to thoroughly assess a site. The agency maintains that inspections are only one part of a broader strategy to ensure food safety, which includes border checks, sampling, and monitoring by importers. However, the recent Cyclospora outbreak has revealed gaps in these approaches. In July, regulators had to retract a faulty test result that initially suggested contamination in a sample of iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms. Despite this, the FDA believes the farm is the source of the outbreak, though Mexican authorities have found no evidence of contamination there. The investigation is ongoing, and the FDA is currently evaluating how many foreign inspections should be conducted annually to match the level of oversight in the U.S. FDA inspectors arrived at the Taylor Farms site in Mexico in mid-August, about a month after the recall was announced. This was the first visit since 2019, a year that marked the peak of foreign food inspections before the pandemic. The number of inspections has continued to decline, with a 17% drop in fiscal year 2025. While the Trump administration did not target FDA inspectors for job cuts, the agency has reduced staff handling travel logistics, leaving inspectors to manage their own travel and accommodations. Experts argue that it should not have taken four weeks to get on-site in Mexico, given the scale of the outbreak. “You need to respond quickly to outbreaks in fresh produce, which involve complex and changing environments,” said Frank Yiannas, a former top FDA food safety official.