On December 13, 2024, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that it will be reforming the methodology for official imported food inspection agencies to apply for a Federal Grant of Inspection (GOI).

All meat, poultry, and egg products will be subject to re-inspection by the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) at an Official imported Food Inspection Facility (OIFI) upon compliance with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) requirements. All businesses and facilities must apply for a GOI in order to become an official import food inspection facility, and since 1990, FSIS has limited GOIs to businesses and facilities within 50 miles of traditional ports of entry, which are usually located in the surrounding areas of the country, due to food defense and safety concerns, as well as inspection resource constraints. Recently, FSIS has faced food safety and defense issues regarding the International Trade Data System (ITDS), the Electronic Module for imported Foods in the Public Health Information System (PHIS), Advance import Notification (AIN), and the ability to track the arrival of imported foods in the United States. Therefore, FSIS has decided to make relevant changes to move forward, but FSIS does not negate federal inspection authorization under the 50-mile standard.

In order to provide greater flexibility to importers and domestic U.S. agencies, FSIS will consider, on a per agency basis, GOIs for official imported food inspection agencies outside of a 50-mile geographic radius of a U.S. land or sea port of entry. 

In reviewing the GOIs of imported food inspection agencies, FSIS will consider the following factors: 

(1) the availability of program inspectors at the inspection agency; 

(2) the expected product yield;

(3) the inspection organization's hours of operation to determine whether a GOI should be issued.

For more details, see: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/news-events/news-press-releases/constituent-update-december-13-2024