FDA Will Resume Inspecting Some High-Risk Foods
With the partial US government shutdown still in effect, there haven’t been enough food safety workers to properly conduct inspections at high-risk food manufacturing and other processing plants.
But that will change this week.
According to a report in the New York Times, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb is calling back some furloughed federal employees to resume their jobs, unfortunately without paychecks for now.
Gottlieb is also hopeful that his non-inspectors would return to the job even though they too won’t receive a check, saying they’re “dedicated and want to come back.”
High-risk inspections, which make up about one-third of the agency’s workload, will start back up on Tuesday, but others will still have to wait, reveals Gottlieb.