Here are some figures to digest: an estimated 48 million people get sick from foodborne diseases each year, with 3,000 of those dying from the diseases contracted. Not helping those numbers is the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the federal agency tasked with testing the food we eat — has not met its inspection targets for seven years, averaging 8,353 domestic and 917 foreign inspections between 2018 and 2023, according to the Government Accountability Office. So you know what that means, time to cut inspections altogether! I do believe that’s trademarked Covid-era Trump Math, to make the numbers look better… by taking them out of the equation entirely. So far, the RFK Jr.-run Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) denies this reporting that the FDA is about to end food safety inspections. Sure, Jan. Because laying off 10,000+ employees across all federal health agencies is in no way a precursor to those agencies being unable to do their lifesaving work.
A spokesperson told The Independent that the FDA is actively working to ensure continuity of operations during the reorganization period and remains committed to ensuring critical programs and inspections continue.
One former official told CBS News that FDA employees have been working on a possible shift of the agency’s food efforts to states for years, which could give the department the room to focus on higher priority and foreign inspections and help tackle case backloads.
“There’s so much work to go around. And us duplicating their work just doesn’t make sense,” one former FDA official, who worked on the plans before leaving the agency and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.
Notably, some inspections are already outsourced. The FDA says it may conduct inspections using state partnering agencies and that they also can be conducted by “foreign countries with whom we have Memoranda of Understanding or similar agreements.”
State inspectors who conduct inspections are trained by the FDA to ensure consistency across state and federal efforts. State partners and the FDA share findings from their inspections.
“The FDA prioritizes inspections using a risk-based approach that takes into account today’s global food supply and markets and focuses on issues of food safety that may affect public health,” it says.
It remains unclear what would happen in states that don’t have contracts with the FDA to conduct inspections.
Recent layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services are also a factor. The department initially let go some 10,000 across agencies. With fewer staff members, come fewer inspections that can be done. CBS News previously reported that the FDA is planning to hire contractors in an attempt to fill that gap.
A report released by the Government Accountability Office earlier this year … said FDA officials had already cited limited workforce capacity as the FDA’s “primary challenge to meeting inspection targets,” and that the agency had not identified and implemented additional procedures for minimizing incidences where investigators attempt but are unable to complete an inspection.
“In theory, relying on states to do more routine food inspection work could lead to better food safety,” Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, told CBS News.
“So far, this administration has acted with reckless disregard for how its policies will affect the detection and prevention of foodborne illness, and any plans to replace federal food inspectors with some other workforce deserve suspicion,” he said.
“State inspectors who conduct inspections are trained by the FDA to ensure consistency across state and federal efforts. … It remains unclear what would happen in states that don’t have contracts with the FDA to conduct inspections.” I don’t know, I think I have a pretty clear idea of what’s gonna happen: blue states will keep up with science-based food safety inspections, red states will let their citizens get gravely sick from drinking raw milk, and blue state resources (medical services and/or taxes) will end up being used to fix the catastrophe, which of course will cost more from the damage control end as opposed to prevention. Right? Because it’s not just wack job extremist food items like RFK Jr.’s beloved raw milk that the FDA works to protect us from; it’s everything mainstream as well, like Trump’s favorite McDonald’s, which had an E. coli outbreak thanks to a batch of onions last October. Anyway, look out for the imminent announcement that all FDA inspectors had to be fired cause something something DEI. MAGA: Make Americans Gastrically Afraid.
Start boiling your milk before drinking it, people. I can’t believe we are living through this insanity.
There’s currently an E. coli outbreak in 15 states so far related to lettuce from a farm in CA that the FDA/CDC is not making public knowledge.
this is why I started growing my own vegetables. unfortunately, I’m in Philly so I can do it outside all year. This is my first year using a tabletop hydroponics unit (I wanted to test it out and make sure I stick with it before investing in a larger unit). It’s been great for lettuce and I used it to start my peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries and some companion plant herbs that I will transplant into my raised garden beds. Towards the end of the season, I’ll start smaller cuke and a mini bell variety to see what it’s like to grow them in a smaller unit.
FYI Sunflowers seem to love the system and, once germinated, started to grow quickly enough that I transplanted them into peat pots so I’ll be making the pollinators extra happy with twice the amount of sunflowers this year, and some blooming early in the summer
We used the tabletop hydroponic starter for the first time this year too! You’re so right about the sunflowers. We also started tomatoes, basil, and wildflowers in it. It’s amazing how quickly the seeds sprout.
I have been sick so dang many times from bagged lettuce that’s ended up being recalled. I hate to think checking for salmonella and e coli could get worse!
I am employed by a state agency in a blue state, and I can tell you the states do not have resources to do the work of the federal government. Inspections will not happen. Outbreaks will not be communicated well. We are about to be living in The Jungle.
States need to keep their own taxes for this to work, which leads to the breakup of the US and/or civil war. Exactly what Putin wants.
Not the same Megan as above. America has become too big to govern as a single entity. I think a fracture is inevitable.
I mean, we’ve been able to do it for 250 years? It’s only since fascism and our current autocracy has taken over that it suddenly becomes difficult. We had a pretty good system in place before they decided to annihilate it.
That being said, I would love for New England to secede so if that’s the path forward and out of this disastrous experiment, I’m all in.
Not too big to govern, but too big to be managed by a skeletal workforce, which is what trump (putin’s puppet) wants to do.
Too BIG? Or too polarized? And who benefits from that?
It’s been the same size since 1959. Every other president was able to govern.
I need to know when that photo was taken of RFK Jr and Russell Brand and Dr. Oz. (Is that Dr. Oz? Put a shirt on, please.) Could they be so stupid as to take photos with Brand even after his indictment?
They don’t care. Look at the president they serve.
2 predators and a quack.
This is going to make interstate trade and tourism more dicey to be honest. With the federal government running the oversight there was standardization. The milk you bought at the grocery store in NY was pretty much the same milk you get in Wisconsin at that grocery store.
Now with the states, who don’t have the man power or infrastructure to run inspections and enforce regulations, will decide themselves what to do about food products that are so susceptible to food borne illnesses like e. coli, listeria, and salmonella.
Especially traveling from a blue state to a red state.
Raw milk was a leading cause of infant mortality before pasteurization. We’re literally going back in time.
I’m pretty ignorant about our food supply systems but I’m guessing that our country is interdependent enough that shitty inspections in any state would effect the entire country.
And then some states and /or vendors will refuse to purchase from other states and/or vendors, and that will probably play a roll in making us less United as a country. I’m sure Putin is chuckling.
Thanks to all those who voted 🐘, especially to those who thought a Felon was a better choice than a former state Attorney General.
So now Morons Are Governing America and will make everything — including public health, transport, finances — less secure, more expensive and will cause harm, or even death, to not only their own voters but to everyone. And not only to the US but potentially to the rest of the world too.
Public health especially is a field where data are not only shared among states and nationally, but also either with neighboring countries or even world-wide, e.g. via WHO and/or labs that are affiliated with international organisations or members of international networks.
I am so sorry for everyone who was unfairly laid off, and for everyone who will get sick of things that would usually have been avoidable. And for those who will be victims of health-related scams, mis- and disinformation and esoteric quacks.
I’m Canadian so I’ve stopped buying any American food product (it was easier than I thought) because of the 51st state/trade war nonsense but this is another reason why I won’t buy American.
Me too @Tina. I was grocery shopping yesterday and spotted some beautiful organic carrots at a good price — looked at the provenance and they were from the US. I bought Mexican ones that were more expensive but I’m battling cancer right now and if I come down with E-Coli or listeria or Hep A/E I’m fucked. Wash all produce from the US in water with a few drops of iodine, I did that when I lived in Mexico back in the seventies and never got sick. We even used iodine tablets in our drinking water.
Yep! We’re even supporting the Buy Canada movement this summer by traveling only within Canada instead of going abroad. We’re gonna hit two Maritime provinces in the first trip, and in the second, go see British Columbia and Yukon! I can’t wait.
This annexation garbage, along with the tariffs asshattery and the fentanyl lies, is what motivated me to practice buying Canadian as much as I can. When you walk into liquor stores the shelves previously filled with American alcohol are empty – all the US alcohol has been removed. They really mistook our kindness for weakness and now they see how a pissed off neighbour can affect their pocket books.
I’m sorry for everyone who voted for Kamala. Everyone else, I am out of sympathy. MAGA will cheer this on as the population is slowly poisoned with you name it, raw sewage in the water supply, raw milk, unsafe food, whatever. They don’t have to pay out social security if everyone’s dead, maybe it’s part of the plan for government efficiency. This would be hilarious if it weren’t so damn terrifying.
Deity-On-A-F’ing-Cracker. Daily rotation: Incompetence, Corruption, Ignorance, Sadism. Not sure we’ll survive this administration.
@jaded sorry to hear about the cancer. Wishing you recovery and health.
The goal is to return as much as possible to the states. SCOTUS majority started with Roe and is now taking on the birthright citizenship case, don’t be surprised if they overturn the amendment and send it back to the states to individually decide if they’ll have BC.
And more amendments will crumble. Don’t be surprised if they (majority SCOTUS) also give him a 3rd term.
I think the union is over. And big states may consider seceding.
That just eugenicist tactics, they’re literally trying to kill people in order to say “oh, well the weak die first you know.” It’s like a nazi bingo with this administration.
Exactly and many people won’t clock it until after the fact.
As a European I honestly don’t understand the fear with raw milk, I can buy it at the supermarket and no one gets sick from it. (and it’s heart breaking that the Democrats didn’t take this on and lost votes over this)
We just recently found out that people barely know how to wash their hands. Raw milk is a perfect place for bacteria that can kill a person to grow uninhibited.
As we de-fund the federal government, why do all these assholes like Kennedy,Trump and Musk have jobs at all?