The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to scale back routine food and drug inspections due to the loss of around 170 support staff from its Office of Inspections and Investigations, officials said. While frontline inspectors were not among the 10,000 Department of Health and Human Services employees laid off by order of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the removal of key administrative personnel has disrupted operations.
FDA officials are now prioritizing inspections tied to safety risks or past violations over routine “surveillance inspections.” The agency also paused a pilot program of unannounced foreign inspections due to a lack of translators, previously arranged by the eliminated travel operations team.
Inspectors must now manage their own travel and logistics, diverting time from site visits. Further complicating operations is a new $1 spending cap on government-issued cards, which has delayed inspections and forced staff to schedule them a month in advance.
The FDA was already behind on inspection goals, with the Government Accountability Office warning earlier this year of missed deadlines in food safety oversight.
Source:
- CBS News – MBFC Rating
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