FDA OASIS and the Import Refusals Report for animal feed
OASIS (Operational and Administrative System for Import Support) is the US FDA's core business system for processing all FDA-regulated imports. Its public companion, the Import Refusals Dashboard, lets the public query historical refusal data by product category — including Animal Feed (which includes pet food). The IRR (Import Refusals Report) is updated monthly (the dashboard itself weekly).
Structure of the dashboard
- Three tabs: Graphs · Data Table · Download Dataset (entire or filtered).
- Nine product categories, one of which is Animal Feed (incl. pet food) — alongside Cosmetics, Devices, Drugs and Biologics, Housewares & Food Related, Human Foods, Radiological Health, Tobacco Products, and All Refusals.
- Five Import Divisions (post the 2017-05-15 Program Alignment that moved FDA from Districts to Divisions):
- DNEI — Northeast (New York / Philadelphia / Boston)
- DNBI — Northern Border (Detroit / Buffalo)
- DSEI — Southeast (Miami / Atlanta)
- DSWI — Southwest (Houston / Dallas)
- DWCI — West Coast (Los Angeles / San Francisco)
Legal basis and the refusal clock
- The refusal standard rests on FD&C Act Section 801 (21 USC §381) — the "appearance" standard for imported articles.
- Refused articles must be exported or destroyed within 90 days after refusal.
Core refusal charge codes (pet-food relevant)
The official Refusal Charges Reference CSV contains 306 charge codes covering the FD&C Act violation dictionary. The codes that matter for pet food:
| Code | Meaning | Applies to |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FILTHY | Product visibly filthy, decomposed or otherwise unfit | Animal-origin ingredients |
| SALMONELLA | Detection of pathogenic microorganisms | Pet-food ingredients |
| VETDRUGRES | Prohibited veterinary-drug residues | Imported pet food |
| HISTAMINE | Histamine over-limit (tuna / mahimahi) | Aquatic pet treats |
| MFR INSAN | Insanitary manufacturing conditions | Processed pet food |
| MFRHACCP | HACCP violation (21 CFR Part 123) | Processed food |
| FEED & NAD | Animal feed containing an unapproved new animal drug (§501(a)(6)) | Animal feed |
The eight charge-category slices in this repository (microbiological / veterinary-drug residues / filthy-decomposed-foreign-matter / chemical-contaminants-mycotoxins-histamine / misbranding / insanitary-HACCP / diseased-animals-unapproved-additives / temporal-trends) each document one of these refusal families.
Honest scope note
The dashboard is publicly queryable and monthly-updated, but line-level refusal counts by product category require querying the dashboard / dataset directly — this article documents the framework and charge taxonomy, not a counted refusal total, because the per-category totals live behind the live IRR dataset rather than in a static first-hand extract available here.
Sources
fda_oasis_import_refusals_dashboard_animal_feed_2026— OASIS/IRR definitions, 9 categories, 5 divisions, FD&C §801, 90-day rule, 306 charge codes, core pet-food violation codes.fda_oasis_refusals_microbiological_adulteration_salmonella_listeria_2026,…_veterinary_drug_residues_and_new_animal_drugs_2026,…_filthy_decomposed_substances_and_foreign_matter_2026,…_chemical_contaminants_mycotoxins_histamine_2026,…_misbranding_and_labeling_requirements_2026,…_insanitary_manufacturing_and_haccp_violations_2026,…_diseased_animals_unapproved_additives_and_miscellaneous_2026,…_temporal_trends_dashboard_api_access_and_data_retrieval_2026— the eight refusal charge-category slices documenting each family.