FDA Import Refusal History by Facility

Before you rely on a foreign supplier of food, cosmetics, or devices, check whether the FDA has ever refused a shipment from their facility. Enter one exact FDA facility identifier (FEI) and get every matching row from FDA's published 2024–present import refusal export: charge codes decoded into plain English, product descriptions, refusal dates, and the original source rows — evidence you can attach to a supplier file.

Who uses this

• US importers of food, cosmetics, or medical devices doing FSVP (Foreign Supplier Verification Program) supplier checks
• Customs brokers screening a shipper or consignee before filing an entry
• Compliance consultants building supplier due-diligence files
• Marketplace sellers importing food, cosmetics, or devices who need to document supplier screening
• AI agents and compliance workflows that need a structured, exact-match refusal lookup

What you get

• status: checked_matches_found or checked_no_matches for the fresh export
• refusalLineCount and the full matching records (original FDA CSV rows: product code and description, refusal date, entry number, district, charges)
• chargeCounts: each FDA charge code decoded into its official statutory definition, with a per-line count
• summaries: deterministic refusal-line counts by month and by exact product-code/description pair
• source.publishedCoverageEndMonth, source.freshness, and the archive's SHA-256 hash, so you can show exactly what was checked and when

Coverage & freshness

• Source: FDA's Import Refusal Report, the published 2024–present refusal export (Import_Refusal_2024-present.zip).
• Every run downloads the export fresh and checks its filename-derived coverage month; if that coverage end is more than 90 days old, the run fails rather than returning stale data.
• Matching is by exact FEI only — no fuzzy name matching, no merging of related facilities.
• A report is capped at 5,000 matching rows; larger matches fail rather than being truncated.
• This is one source: warning letters, import alerts, and recalls are explicitly marked not_checked in every report.

Pricing

$0.50 for a successfully delivered report with one or more matching refusal lines. A checked_no_matches report is delivered free. Set a run budget that covers the report charge.

Quick start

{"fei": "3002678247"}

fei is required and must be digits only, matched exactly.

Sample output

A live run for FEI 3002678247 (B.C. Frozen Foods, Mission, British Columbia) returned status: "checked_matches_found" with 23 matching refusal lines, latest refusal 2025-06-24. An excerpt of chargeCounts:

Code	Lines	Definition
241	10	Appears to bear or contain a pesticide chemical residue (adulteration, 402(a)(2)(B))
260	9	Labeling appears false or misleading (misbranding, 403(a)(1))
249	3	Appears filthy, putrid, decomposed, or otherwise unfit for food (adulteration, 402(a)(3))

Excerpt of one matching record: PRODUCT_CODE: "20AGD14", PRDCT_CODE_DESC_TEXT: "STRAWBERRIES (BERRY)", REFUSAL_DATE: "04-Sep-24", REFUSAL_CHARGES: "241".

Use with AI agents / API / integrations

• Reachable through the Apify API (REST and the JS/Python clients); each run returns the report as one dataset item.
• Callable by any agent connected to Apify's MCP server — useful for an agent doing automated supplier screening before recommending or approving a vendor.
• Schedule it on Apify Schedules to re-check a supplier list periodically, and route reports to a Google Sheet, email, or a compliance system through Apify's integrations or Zapier/Make.
• One JSON report per run drops into a supplier file or compliance database without extra transformation.

Limitations & interpretation

• This is a narrow evidence lookup for one published period, not a substitute for full supplier due diligence and not a claim of FDA archive completeness.
• It makes no supplier approval, risk score, or overall compliance determination.
• refusalLineCount counts matching CSV lines, never shipment volume or a refusal rate.
• checked_no_matches means no exact FEI matched this export — it is not supplier clearance, and it does not check any other FDA source.
• A source or validation failure fails the run and produces no dataset item or charge; results are never partial.

Data source & privacy

Sourced exclusively from official U.S. government open-data publications. Contains no personal contact data, and we do not append or link personal contact details to these records. Some FDA-listed firms may be sole proprietorships.

Attribution: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Import Refusal Report. This service is not affiliated with the FDA.

Built and maintained with AI agents.

Support

For questions about this Actor, email matthew@goodlifegames.io.