By Kuei-Jung Ni
It has been over a week since the federal government shutdown started on October 1 and concerns over food safety due to the lack of essential food inspections have increased. The impasse on the budget constitutes a big challenge facing federal agencies responsible for monitoring food safety and protecting the public from such risks.
There are mainly three units managing food safety at the federal level: (1) the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); (2) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and (3) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). FSIS is responsible for supervising the production of meat, poultry, and eggs. FDA regulates non-meat food safety. CDC aims to control and prevent foodborne illnesses. In response to the shutdown, according to the New York Times’ report, there was no coherent decision among the agencies about to what extent competent officials will keep working. The discrepancy will affect the efficiency of coordination and communication between the organs.
Although states remain functional to oversee local food safety, foodborne disease outbreaks or other food safety emergencies at a multi-state or national level would be a serious health problem as centralized coordination and federal support would be lacking. The recent ongoing Salmonella outbreak that has inflected 278 people in 17 states raises a grave worry about whether the government shutdown will make the situation worse. It was reported that CDC will continue to investigate and watch the diseases and has decided to bring 30 employees back from furlough. Yet, it seems unreasonable and unsustainable to require staffs to maintain the same quality of performance without pay. The shortage of sufficient professional workers will also cast a doubt on whether potential and new outbreaks can be detected and investigated in a timely way.
Another critical issue relating to food safety and security is the delay of inspections on imported food. FDA has halted services, among others, on the monitoring of imported foods and drugs. Considering that about 15 percent of American food supply is imported, the potential risks here are quite substantial.