Significant proposed regulatory changes within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with large layoffs that have occurred across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – which oversees the FDA – could greatly affect seafood importers, processors, and other industry stakeholders in the near future, according to a former FDA seafood specialist.
The recent HHS layoffs, which total nearly 20,000, include personnel with expertise in seafood, traditional foods, and labeling, “leaving the FDA with lack of expertise in these areas,” said Brian Ravitch, a senior regulatory advisor at Washington, D.C., U.S.A.-based law firm Olsson Frank Weeda who also worked at the FDA for 25 years, including time spent as a seafood specialist.
According to Ravitch, the loss of qualified personnel could soon lead to delays in seafood trade. For example, importers’ requests for removal from import alerts and other important functions that affect seafood commerce and the ability to import products into the U.S. may soon take longer to approve.
“As a consultant, I have seen an increase in the time it takes for internal compliance reviews of submissions of testimony for violations observed during inspection and also requests for removal from import alerts concerning foods, including seafood,” Ravitch said. “Since many are being reviewed by food experts within specific departments of the FDA, such as the Office of Seafood Safety and Human Food Program, there are real concerns regarding time frames due to the loss of personnel.”
Elsewhere within the administration, the FDA recently suspended a quality control program for its food testing laboratories, according to an internal email attained by Reuters.
The FDA's Food Emergency Response Network’s proficiency testing program ensures consistency and accuracy across the agency's network of labs, which tests food for pathogens and contaminants to prevent foodborne illness, per Reuters.
The FDA suspended the program at least through 30 September, according to the email, which means the agency will soon be unable to conduct planned quality control work around lab testing for the parasite Cyclospora in spinach and the pesticide glyphosate in barley, among other tests.
Only time will tell what effect this may have on the seafood industry, Ravitch said.
"My biggest fear would be in the area of illness outbreaks and the ability to work with the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], other state regulators, and local governments to track and find causes of illnesses,” he said. “I hope the regulatory standards will remain intact, but it could be more of just an inconvenience for industry seeking regulatory compliance due to time delays and other agency restraints.”
Another change that could impact seafood companies is the Trump administration’s proposed 18.5 percent reduction in the FDA’s fiscal 2026 budget. Under the proposed budget changes, the responsibility of routine food inspections would shift from the FDA to individual states, per Food Dive.
In the past, the U.S. food industry has pushed the FDA to rely more on states for routine inspections in order to address federal workforce and budget constraints, Food Dive noted; however, the viability of moving all routine inspections to the state level depends on whether states have the financial support and infrastructure “to go it alone,” according to Steve Grossman, former executive director of the Maryland-based nonprofit Alliance for a Stronger FDA.
Many states have already established partnerships with the FDA to complete regulatory inspections in tandem for years, in which state authorities participated in FDA-led trainings in the area of inspections and preventive controls, Ravitch said.
“State-trained investigators would often be required to conduct inspections with trained investigators. I would hope this would be the case moving forward. I have heard there have been cuts to areas which include partnerships and communications; hopefully, the states will not be left to fend on their own concerning food safety programs,” Ravitch said.
The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is aware of the FDA’s regulatory changes and is monitoring them closely, NFI Chief Strategy Officer Gavin Gibbons told SeafoodSource.
