With a mandatory compliance date of January 1, 2022, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) rule, “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NFBDS),” requires “food manufacturers, importers and other entities that label foods for retail sale to disclose information about bioengineered (BE) food and BE food ingredients.

What does a facility that processes 10,000 pounds of cheese a month have in common with one that bottles 8,000 cans of beer a day?

To help meet consumer demand, U.S. food manufacturers and retailers look outside of the country. As of 2019, the U.S. imported about 15% of its overall food supply. Importing human food ingredients might sound like a no-brainer: that’s what the FDA is for, after all. Yet in reality, it is not that simple.