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Recommendations Database

GAO’s recommendations database contains report recommendations that still need to be addressed. GAO’s priority recommendations are those that we believe warrant priority attention. We sent letters to the heads of key departments and agencies, urging them to continue focusing on these issues. Below you can search only priority recommendations, or search all recommendations.

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As of October 25, 2020, there are 4812 open recommendations, of which 473 are priority recommendations. Recommendations remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.

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Results:

Subject Term: "Food safety regulations"

1 publication with a total of 1 open recommendation
Download these results in CSV format or XLSX format.
Consumer Product Safety Commission: Awareness, Use, and Usefulness of SaferProducts.gov
GAO-13-306, Mar 11, 2013
Director: Cackley, Alicia P
Phone: (202) 512-8678

1 open recommendations
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Recommendation: To improve the awareness, use, and usefulness of SaferProducts.gov, the CPSC should implement cost-effective usability improvements to SaferProducts.gov, taking into account the results of any existing usability testing or any new testing CPSC may choose to conduct.

Agency: Consumer Product Safety Commission
Status: Open

Comments: The Commission has taken some steps to address this recommendation by making usability improvements to SaferProducts.gov that we identified in our consumer testing in our report. For example, in 2015, the Commission addressed issues identified with the search functionality of the website by improving the advanced search function to enable searches by injury, time period, and location. In August 2018, the Commission clarified the purpose of SaferProducts.gov by adding the tagline (brief text that gives users an immediate idea of what the site does) "Report. Search. Protect." to its website. As of August 2019, CPSC has explored further ways to improve the usability of SaferProducts.gov. Specifically, in February 2019, CPSC published a request for information from the public on how to improve SaferProducts.gov. In March 2019, CPSC held a public hearing to obtain a feedback on how the design of SaferProducts.gov and process of submitting safety reports could be improved. For example, two consumer groups recommended that CPSC further improve the website's search function to yield more relevant and streamlined results and that it be designed for better use on mobile devices. Based on this input, CPSC is in the process of developing a plan for re-designing SaferProducts.gov using modern web-design standards, which includes improving the website's layout and styling, search capabilities, and functionality on mobile devices. According to CPSC, its staff plans to explore cost-effective resources to assess usability and identify further improvements to the website, such as coordinating with the General Services Administration on the design aspects of SaferProducts.gov and using other federal best practices to inform this process. However, no such cost-effective changes have yet been made to the website. According to officials, CPSC plans to begin this re-design in 2019 or 2020 pending available future funding. Until the Commission fully addresses this recommendation, it remains open. We will continue to monitor the Commission's progress in implementing our recommendation.