Reintroduced to U.S. Congress on February 3, 2025, the Expanded Food Safety Investigation Act (EFSIA) seeks to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to collect microbial samples from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The bill is sponsored by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also referred to as “factory farms,” are large-scale facilities that raise food-producing animals in confinement. At present, FDA lacks the authority to conduct microbial sampling on factory farms during foodborne illness outbreak investigations, and therefore, public health investigators are frequently denied access to CAFOs.

Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Booker hope that EFSIA will enable FDA to more effectively investigate and control foodborne illness outbreaks, which they believe is of critical importance in light of the ongoing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) outbreak affecting U.S. poultry flocks and dairy herds.

EFSIA was first introduced after the 2019 multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli infections caused by romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona. The crops that caused the foodborne illness outbreak were contaminated by a cattle-feeding operation in close proximity to where the crop was grown. Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Booker introduced EFSIA to Congress for a second time in 2023.