Scott Witt & Zak Solomon write: In 2013, Food Sentry added over 3,400 verified instances of food safety violations associated with products exported from 117 countries. The incidents in the dataset were comprised of raw or minimally processed food items that were found to be in violation of the inspecting country’s regulatory scheme. Specifically, Food Sentry identified violations by product type as follows: seafood (23.5%); vegetables (20%); fruits (13.8%); herbs/spices (8.9%); dairy (7.5%); grains (7.1%); meats (7.0%); nuts/seeds (6.5%); other (5.7%).

According to the data, the countries that were the top ten sources of violative products in 2013 were (in order of frequency): India, China, Mexico, France, United States, Vietnam, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Turkey, and Spain. Each of these countries is a substantial food exporter and it is likely that their products are tested more frequently than other countries.

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