FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say
a day ago
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- The FDA is planning to end most of its routine food safety inspections, outsourcing them to state and local authorities.
- The plans are not finalized and may require congressional funding; HHS denies the FDA is making such plans.
- Some FDA employees have been working on shifting routine food inspections to states to focus on higher priority and foreign inspections.
- Currently, a third of routine food safety inspections are done by states, often for lower-risk inspections.
- The FDA remains responsible for the safety of much of the U.S. food supply, including packaged products, seafood, eggs, and produce.
- Higher-risk routine inspections, like those for infant formula manufacturers, would likely remain with the FDA.
- States without FDA contracts for food inspections, such as Hawaii and Delaware, face uncertainty.
- The FDA also conducts inspections in response to issues, like the Colorado onion processor linked to a McDonald's outbreak.
- The outsourcing idea gained traction after 2010, with parallels to the FDA's Grade A Milk Safety Program.
- States and advocacy groups argue that state inspections are cost-effective and meet the same standards as FDA inspections.
- The FDA's backlog in overseas and medical product inspections could be alleviated by outsourcing routine food inspections.
- Steep layoffs at the FDA's support staff may reduce the number of inspections the agency can conduct.
- Consumer advocates caution that replacing federal inspectors with state workers requires significant time and resources and deserves scrutiny.