By Joelle Mosso, AVP, Science Programs and Sonia Salas, AVP, Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs

The U.S. fresh produce supply is now deeply dependent on imports: The USDA ERS estimates that in 2024 imports supply 59.4% of fresh fruit availability and 36.3% of fresh vegetable availability. Yet FDA oversight, inspection resources, and operational focus still disproportionately center around the domestic supply chain because it is easier to directly regulate and access. 

Instead, we continue increasing costs, compliance burdens, and operational pressures on domestic growers. The same growers that are already operating under some of the strictest food safety expectations in the world.  

Western Growers has recently completed Cantaloupe & Netted Melons Best Practice documents written by subject matter experts and the industry aimed at just that – increasing focus and further reducing risk. Meanwhile, the same growers that are electively working towards improved practices watch as the economic pressure increasingly shifts sourcing toward regions with less visibility, less oversight, and fewer consequences. 

If FDA truly expects domestic suppliers to implement “risk-based” food safety management, then FDA’s own oversight and resource allocation should also become risk-based. Right now, they are not aligned with where increasing supply, and increasing outbreak risk, is coming from. 

But we also understand reality: federal systems move slowly. 

Retail and foodservice buyers decide every day which suppliers survive and their decisions impact consumers . Too often, the deciding factor remains the cheapest delivered price, with no transparency about the tradeoffs behind those decisions. 

Consumers are never told that the lower-cost product may come from systems with less food safety oversight, less verification, or less accountability. 

That needs to change. 

It’s not just food industry CEOs who need to learn that illness is more expensive than a clean packing floor. Retailers, foodservice companies, and their buyers also need to become accountable for the sourcing decisions they make. It is time for the system to reward producers investing in reducing consumer risk and not overlook them in favor of the cheapest bidder.