Is Your Food Safe During The Government Shutdown?

By Sam Lewis

Reductions in staffing and duties are currently underway at government health agencies

Well, it happened. A budget was not approved by Congress on Monday at Midnight, and the government has been shut down since Tuesday, Oct 1. If 800,000 government workers are on furlough, who is manning the FDA? What will happen to food safety?

There’s no need to go into full-on panic. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a contingency staffing plan will be implemented, allowing more than half of the FDA’s nearly 15,000 employees to keep their jobs. There may not be a reason to fully panic, but there’s definitely reason for concern. Normal establishment inspections, routine compliance and enforcement activities, notification programs, import monitoring, and most research lab work has come to a halt. “The FDA will be unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition, and cosmetics activities,” reads the HHS guideline. The more than 8,000 remaining staff would go on with “vital activities including maintaining critical consumer protection.” These necessary procedures include dealing with emergencies and high risk recalls, along with civil and criminal investigations.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has placed 68 percent of its staff on furlough. This regretfully means the CDC cannot assist state and local groups in the surveillance of disease. The reduction in staff puts the CDC at a great disadvantage in response to outbreaks and their investigations. Meanwhile, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has 87 percent of its staff currently working. The agency regulates poultry and meat processing along with its packaging and is largely retained, “to ensure the safety of human life for the duration of a government shutdown.” However, according to the USDA’s staffing plan regarding work stoppages, “A lengthy hiatus would affect the safety of human life and have serious adverse effects on the industry, the consumer, and the Agency.”

Food safety has been placed at a giant disadvantage during the government furlough. Despite planning ahead for events like this, the shutdown allows contaminated products to reach consumers, and consequently, makes it more difficult to identify and track contaminated food and outbreaks of disease. “The government’s food safety functions are far more pressing than the unrealistic demands being made by petulant extremists in the House,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, Food Safety Director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. George Carlin once said, “The opposite of progress is Congress.” By failing to work together, both parties of Congress have dismissed the best interests and food safety concerns of the American public, making Carlin’s statement seem all the more true.