21 U.S.C. § 2243 — Smuggled food

The record. The source credit indicates that this section was enacted as part of Public Law 111-353, title III, § 309, dated January 4, 2011, and published at 124 Stat. 3966. The source credit does not reflect any amendments beyond the original enactment, indicating the text has remained substantially as originally passed. Historical context. Public Law 111-353 is commonly known as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a major overhaul of the federal food safety regulatory framework. The Act is generally understood to have been a legislative response to a series of high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks and gaps identified in the FDA's ability to prevent contamination, rather than simply respond to it after the fact. FSMA is commonly described as shifting the FDA's approach from reactive to preventive, including expanded authority over imported food, given the increasing share of the U.S. food supply sourced from abroad. Within that broader context, this section's focus on "smuggled food" reflects the Act's general concern with strengthening oversight of food entering the country through irregular channels, and with coordinating between food-safety and border-security agencies. However, the specific record provided does not establish the particular findings, debates, or legislative intent behind this individual provision. Beyond the general purposes commonly attributed to FSMA as a whole, the reasons Congress chose to address smuggled food specifically, in this form, are not documented in the materials available here, and no more specific claim should be inferred.