Import Alert 89-16

What being on this list means

Firms on an import alert's Red List are subject to Detention Without Physical Examination (DWPE): FDA can detain their shipments at the border automatically, without sampling or inspecting them. The burden shifts to the importer to prove — typically with private laboratory analysis, shipment by shipment — that the goods are not violative. Removal from the list requires evidence that the underlying problem is resolved, usually including a track record of consecutive clean shipments and a petition to FDA. How removal works →

A Green List on a countrywide alert works the other way: it names the firms FDA has excluded from detention because they demonstrated compliance.