In 2020 FDA established a collaborative partnership, i.e., “Statement of Intent” (SOI), with its Mexican counterparts (SENASICA and COFEPRIS) to improve the safety of food that is traded between the countries. The SOI expanded upon a 2014 SOI which had been limited to produce and minimally processed foods.

On March 31, 2023, FDA held a joint meeting with SENASICA and COFEPRIS to discuss the progress on food safety issues. Progress on identifying food contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis was particularly noteworthy and FDA shipped Cyclospora DNA sequences to SENASCIA and COFEPRIS and delivered a training on Chapter 19B of the Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM), which relates to FDA’s preferred methods for testing for Cyclospora cayetanensis.

Other accomplishments of the partnership can be found at the FDA webpage for the partnership where they are listed under one of the four content-specific working groups which worked on the issue: (1) the Strategic Priorities Work Group (focused on improving communication on important food safety issues), (2) the Laboratory Collaboration Work Group (focused on sharing lab data including whole genome sequencing, (3) the Outbreak Response Work Group (focused on enhancing effectiveness and timeliness of responses to food born illness outbreaks), and (4) the Food Safety Training Work group (focused on training to improve compliance with food safety requirements). 

We will continue to monitor and report on any developments in the partnership as well as other food safety issues.