The food safety management system of United States has been considered as a model for many countries to develop their own regulatory system. Since the 1980s，several government organizations have re-evaluated the effectiveness of food safety system. In particular，the General Accounting Office （GAO） has submitted a series of reports to Congress to highlight the urgency of food safety system reform to meet the demand of modern food system. In this essay，the background of reform recommendations by GAO was introduced based on over 10 pieces of GAO reports. Three main weaknesses that reduced effectiveness and efficiency of US food safety system were described in details，namely，fragmented structure，overlapping jurisdictions and food recall. At last，the rationale of policy recommendations by GAO was analyzed so to provide references for food safety policy makers of China.