Federal layoffs spark concerns over nation’s food safety
Federal layoffs spark concerns over nation’s food safety
The rapid and widespread reductions in the federal workforce are ongoing, and some have experts worried about what the layoffs and firings will mean for the nation’s food safety.
This week, the head of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety division resigned saying, according to multiple reports, that the cuts will damage the FDA’s ability to safeguard our food supply.
We still don’t know the full extent of layoffs at the FDA, which oversees the safety of most of our food supply, but they are widespread, noted Darin Detwiler, a food safety expert and consultant teaching at Northeastern University.
“These are technical experts, nutrition experts,” he said. “Their jobs are extremely important in terms of outbreak response and disease investigation.”
Frontline food inspectors and investigators have been laid off or fired; some because they were newer employees on probation.
“This is going to result in slower recalls, weaker enforcement and — quite honestly — a rollback of public health protections,” said Detwiler.
The FDA did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. The USDA, which handles some aspect of food safety nationally, said in a statement that the agency is “committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.”
But many experts and former food safety officials are unconvinced.
“I worry about if there is reduced oversight over the food supply, that there will be an increase in foodborne outbreaks,” said Howard Sklamberg, a partner at the law firm Arnold and Porter who spent years in a variety of positions at the FDA.
“Will it occur tomorrow? No, but over time, if you reduce the oversight, you reduce the ability to create and implement standards,” he said. “Does that affect the safety of the food supply? Yes.”
In the meantime, the federal government’s ability to respond to any crises in our food supply is reduced, per Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former associate commissioner at the FDA.
“This will put a lot of pressure on state food inspectors, and quite a lot of food inspection does take place at the state level, but it’s coordinated, and standards are established by groups that have FDA at the very core,” he said.
That’s not to say that there isn’t anyone minding the food supply; there are still thousands of people working at the FDA and other food safety agencies.
Plus, “food safety people that work in the food industry — and there are thousands of us, right — are going to keep doing their jobs, right?” said Donald Schaffner, a food microbiology professor at Rutgers. “So that is not going to change.”
There are already independent groups that keep an eye on food safety along with the government, Schaffner said. Plus, food companies have every incentive to protect their reputations and avoid any health scares.
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