Alert Directory
FDA Import Alerts — Directory & Testing Support
Guides to the FDA import alerts importers hit most — what each alert covers, the charge it carries, and what per-shipment testing evidence typically involves. Find your alert number below, or bring us the notice and we'll work from that.
The Short Version
What an Import Alert Means for Your Shipments
An FDA import alert allows FDA to detain covered shipments automatically — without physically examining each one (DWPE). Once a product, firm, or region is listed, every affected entry is presumed violative on arrival, and the burden shifts to the importer to demonstrate, shipment by shipment, that the goods comply — most commonly with independent laboratory testing of properly collected, custody-documented samples. Each alert below identifies what it covers and the evidence its charge typically calls for.
Find Your Alert
Import Alert Guides by Number
Guides for the alerts our clients' notices cite most, grouped by product area. Each guide links to the official alert text on FDA's website — the authoritative source on scope and listings.
Seafood & Aquaculture
Seafood — Salmonella
DWPE of seafood products due to the presence of Salmonella. One of the most-cited alerts in seafood importing.
Read the guide IA 16-124Seafood — Unapproved Drugs
DWPE of seafood products due to unapproved drug residues in aquaculture — nitrofurans, malachite green, and peers.
Read the guide IA 16-131China Aquaculture — Drug Residues
Countrywide DWPE of certain aquacultured seafood from China — catfish, basa, shrimp, dace, and eel — for unapproved animal drugs.
Read the guidePesticide Residues
Raw Agricultural Products — Pesticides
DWPE of raw agricultural products from listed growers due to illegal pesticide chemical residues.
Read the guide IA 99-08Processed Foods — Pesticides
DWPE of processed human and animal foods from listed firms due to illegal pesticide chemical residues.
Read the guide IA 99-15Countrywide — Processed Foods, Pesticides
Countrywide DWPE of specified processed foods for pesticides — detention by origin, not just by firm.
Read the guideFoods — Contamination & Additives
Food Products — Salmonella
DWPE of food products due to the presence of Salmonella — the broad food-side counterpart to seafood's 16-81.
Read the guide IA 23-14Food Products — Mycotoxins
DWPE of food products due to the presence of mycotoxin — aflatoxin in nuts, figs, spices, and similar commodities.
Read the guide IA 45-02Foods — Illegal / Undeclared Colors
DWPE of foods containing illegal and/or undeclared color additives — a frequent hit for confectionery, snacks, and beverages.
Read the guideSupplements & Drug Products
Dietary Supplements — GMP
DWPE of dietary supplement products from firms that have not met dietary supplement GMPs.
Read the guide IA 66-40Drugs — GMP
DWPE of drugs from firms that have not met drug GMPs — one of the most consequential alerts in pharma importing.
Read the guide IA 53-06Cosmetics — Color Additive Violations
DWPE of cosmetics due to illegal color additives — adulteration and misbranding charges for cosmetic imports.
Read the guideDon't see your alert number? FDA publishes over 150 import alerts — this directory covers the ones we're asked about most, and new guides are added regularly. Coordination is available for shipments under any alert: send your notice and the plan is built from your alert's actual text. The complete official list is at FDA's import alert database.
Shipment by Shipment
How Release Under an Import Alert Typically Works
Being listed doesn't mean automatic refusal — it means automatic detention. Each entry can still be defended with evidence:
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Sample Against the Charge
Representative samples are collected from the detained lot under a documented plan and chain of custody, sized to what the alert's charge requires.
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Test to the Standard
An independent laboratory — with the accreditation the case requires, including LAAF where applicable — analyzes the samples using appropriate validated methods.
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Your Team Submits
Results, custody records, and documentation are organized into a case file; you and your authorized parties decide whether and how to submit to FDA. FDA decides admissibility.
Removal is a separate project. Winning release of one shipment does not take a firm off an alert — removal requires a petition to FDA supported by a documented compliance history, prepared by your regulatory consultant or attorney. We coordinate the per-shipment evidence layer underneath; see import alert testing support for the full picture.
Detained Under an Alert?
Bring Us the Notice — We'll Work From the Alert's Actual Text
Send your FDA Notice of Action with the alert number it cites, plus product details and shipment location. You'll get an honest read on what the charge requires and what coordination can do — before any commitment.
Urgent detention matters receive priority intake review.
FDA Detention Sampling is an independent private company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Import alert summaries on this page are plain-language guides; the official alert text published by FDA is authoritative and controls. Sampling, laboratory testing, documentation, and coordination services do not guarantee FDA release, admissibility, acceptance of laboratory results, removal from any import alert, or any specific regulatory outcome. FDA makes the final admissibility decision.