(photo courtesy of morguefile.com)

It's not just imported food for pets that Americans need to worry about. It seems the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is so overwhelmed by the tremendous increase in imported food that huge amounts are going right to the the tables of American families without any safety inspections.

The FDA points out, "Countries that export to the U.S. do not currently provide FDA with assurance that foods coming to this country are safe."

The beginning of an Associated Press report published by SFGate.com is pretty frightening,

The same food safety net that couldn't catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole.

Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data.

Well before contaminated shipments from China killed 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands more, government food safety task forces worried about the potential human threat — ingredients are hard to quarantine and can go virtually everywhere in a range of brand products.

To read the full AP report as it appeared in SFGate.com go to: U.S. Food Safety Strained by Imports