FDA Responsibilities and Resources

FDA Regulates:

• $417 billion worth of domestic food and $49 billion of imported food¹
• All vegetables, fruits, nuts, dairy products, breads, cereals and fresh eggs² 
• 136,000 domestic food facilities, including manufacturers, processors and warehouses including storage tanks and grain elevators³ 
• Two million farms, 935,000 restaurants and institutional food-service establishments, and 114,000 supermarkets, grocery stores and other food outlets ⁴ 
• One hundred and eighty-nine thousand foreign facilities are registered to manufacture, process, pack or hold food Americans eat⁵ 

FDA Lacks Resources to Keep Nation's Food Safe:

• FDA accounted for only 24 percent of the $1.7 billion federal agencies spent on food safety activities in FY 2003 ⁶
• FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) staffing declined 14 percent between  FY 2003 and FY 2006, from 950 staff years to 812⁷ FDA's field inspection staff responsible for food safety enforcement declined 11.5 percent between  FY 2003 and FY 2006, from 2,217 staff years to 1,962 ⁸
• Inspections of the 189,000 foreign food firms declined from 211 in FY 2001 to fewer than 100 in fiscal year 2007⁹
• FDA estimates that it inspects food manufacturers once every 10 years¹⁰ 

References

¹HHS, FDA Food Protection Plan, An integrated strategy for protecting the nation's food supply,(2007)6. 
²Ibid.
³Ibid.
⁴Ibid.
⁵Ibid.
⁶House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, American Lives Still at Risk: When Will FDA’s Food Protection Plan Be Fully Funded and Implemented?  110th Cong. Sess.2 June 12, 2008.
⁷HHS, FDA, Science Board to the FDA, Report of the Subcommittee on Science and Technology, FDA Science and Mission at Risk (2007), available here.
⁸House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, American Lives Still at Risk, June 12, 2008.
⁹Ibid.
¹⁰FDA, Science Board to the FDA (2007) 3, available here. - See more at: http://www.pewhealth.org/reports-analysis/issue-briefs/fda-responsibilities-and-resources-85899368582#sthash.AuOnlbd7.dpuf