Federal regulators aren’t doing routine food inspections because of partial federal shutdown.
Routine food inspections aren’t getting done because of the partial government shutdown, but checks of the riskiest foods are expected to resume next week, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
The agency said it’s working to bring back about 150 employees to inspect riskier foods such as cheese, infant formula and produce. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency can’t make the case that „a routine inspection of a Nabisco cracker facility“ is necessary during the shutdown, however.
Gottlieb said inspections would have ramped up this week for the first time since the holidays, so the lapse in inspections of high-risk foods will not be significant if they resume soon. He said his concern would grow if those inspections were halted for several weeks.
The FDA conducts about 8,400 inspections a year, or an average of 160 a week, Gottlieb said.
