When FSVP makes you re-evaluate a supplier

What the rule actually says

FSVP is 21 CFR part 1, subpart L. The final rule became effective 26 January 2016 (docket FDA-2011-N-0143). For its purposes an importer is the US owner or consignee of a food at the time of entry; if there is none, it is the US agent or representative of the foreign owner, confirmed by a signed statement of consent.

The rule makes the importer responsible for, among other things:

• determining known or reasonably foreseeable hazards with each food;
• evaluating the risk posed by that food — based on the hazard analysis and on the foreign supplier's performance;
• using that evaluation to approve suppliers and choose verification activities;
• conducting those verification activities, and corrective actions when needed.

The sentence that decides how often you have to look again: the evaluation of the risk posed by the imported food and the supplier's performance must be reevaluated at least every three years, or when new information comes to light about a potential hazard or the foreign supplier's performance. Quoted from FDA's page on the final rule, read 30 August 2026.

What counts as new information about performance

FDA does not publish a closed list, and this site will not invent one. But an import alert is not a borderline case: it is FDA stating, in public, that products from a named establishment appear to be in violation, and that its shipments may be detained without physical examination. That is information about the supplier's performance, it is new on the day the listing appears, and it is on the record.

The practical problem is timing. The register moves without announcement: the newest listings in this copy are dated 28 August 2026, and 1,777 firms in it carry more than one listing, added at different times. An importer who checks once a quarter finds out late; an importer who checks at the port finds out at the worst possible moment.

Checking a supplier against the lists

This site holds the firm lists of the 108 import alerts that name establishments — 20,736 entries across 169 countries, re-read every morning. Two things you can do with it:

• Look up a factory by name and see every alert naming it, with the date each listing was added. Partial names work, nothing is uploaded.
• Put the name on watch, and the change reaches you the morning it happens rather than at the next re-evaluation.

If you keep FSVP records, the useful part is the date: a listing that appeared on a given morning is the moment your obligation to re-evaluate arose, and the record of what moved is kept here because FDA does not keep it — of the 108 alerts with firm lists, only three also publish who came off.

What this page is not

It is not legal or regulatory advice, and it is not a compliance programme. FSVP asks for hazard analysis, supplier approval procedures, verification activities and written records; a red list lookup touches one input to one of those steps. Whether you are subject to FSVP at all, and what your programme must contain, is decided by the rule and by people qualified to read it — start at FDA's own page.

Import Alert Watch is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the FDA. Before acting on a shipment, confirm the entry on the FDA site.