The Top 10 Countries Guilty Of Food Safety Violations

By Laurel Maloy, contributing writer, Food Online

Being part of a top-ten list is normally a sign of honor or prestige. Unfortunately, this is not the case for countries violating food safety regulations. Where does YOUR country fit on the list?

Food Sentry, a Global Food Source Monitoring team, has released the results of a study showing the countries that are the biggest violators of food safety laws. The study’s results are for the year 2013, and took only 8 months to compile, for which Food Sentry should be given kudos, as studies such as this normally take years to complete. According to Food Sentry’s homepage, “We’re a team of food analysts who are passionate about protecting you, a consumer in the U.S., from pathogen-compromised food.”

The study’s information is available to government entities, industry, consumers, and to researchers, in an effort to improve transparency and visibility in the food supply chain. Consumers, Food Sentry’s primary focus, also have access to food-specific data through the Food Risk Rating Guide. 

For this particular study, 3,400 food-safety events in 117 countries — the top 10 will be shown further down the article — were charted. The highest offending food sector is seafood, coming in at 23.5 percent of all charted violations. The next segment at most-fault was fresh vegetables, at 20 percent of recorded violations. Fresh fruit came in third, with nearly 14 percent of all the study’s food-safety events. In light of the recent barrage of foodborne illness outbreaks, the results are not surprising — except for meats being responsible for only seven percent of the 3,400 incidents.

Food Sentry is quite transparent about its results, noting that each of the countries is a substantial exporter of food products — this means the products, or at least a much larger percentage of those products, is more likely to be tested. It’s also important to point out that all of the events were based upon raw or minimally processed foods. The number one violation in 2013 was for excessive levels or illegal uses of pesticides. Over one-third of all food-safety violations fell into this category, with more than 135 specified pesticides and a large number of detectable unspecified pesticides. The remainder of the food-safety data is in order of occurrence:

• Pathogenic Contamination (22 percent)
• Insanitary Conditions & Excessive Filth (15.7 percent)
• Excessive Mycotoxin Contamination (10.2 percent)
• Illegal or Excessive Chemical/Additive Contamination (4.5 percent)
• Excessive Toxic Metal Contamination (3.4 percent)
• Excessive Antibiotic/Antiprotozoan Contamination (2.2 percent)
• Unspecified Regulatory Non-Compliance (2.2 percent)
• Illegal or Excessive Drug Contamination (1.4 percent)

But where did the majority of these food-safety violations occur? Below, in descending order, are the counties most-guilty of food-safety violations, according to Food Sentry:

1. India
2. China
3. Mexico
4. France
5. The United States
6. Vietnam
7. Brazil
8. The Dominican Republic
9. Turkey
10. Spain

The U.S. imports raw and minimally processed food from each of the countries in the Top 10. Based upon these results, it is somewhat surprising that Mexico comes in at third; the majority of the most recent large-scale, highly-publicized U.S. outbreaks have involved Mexican produce. Another worrisome statistic is that the U.S. inspects less than 2 percent of the food it imports, with most countries inspecting far less than 50 percent.

The good news is FSMA addresses the food-safety issues of imported foods. Its new mandates speak to the need for Importer Accountability, Third-Party Certification, and the establishment of a Voluntary Qualified Importer Program. It also gives the FDA authority to deny entry of foreign food products if the FDA is denied access for inspection purposes.