FDA stops food safety inspections as government shutdown continues

The Food and Drug Administration has stopped food safety inspections due to the shutdown.

News13’s Washington correspondent Morgan Wright looked at the possible increased risk of food-borne illnesses, which affect thousands each year, even when the FDA is functioning.

Jaydee Hanson, with the Center for Food Safety, said that raises concerns about food-borne illnesses like E.Coli and Salmonella

“To stop inspections all together is irresponsible and the government needs to do the right thing,” said Hanson.

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D- Wisconsin) said this shutdown has created another crisis for the American people.

“Just shows how important these functions are – that parts of the government that are closed right now, that on a routine basis save lives,” Baldwin said.

In the United States, the FDA typically performs nearly 160 domestic food inspections each week. One third of the those are at high risk facilities.

“We have in the United States 3,000 people a year dying from bad food, if that’s not a national emergency – I don’t know what is,” Hanson also said.

Hanson said the good news is the most at-risk products like meats and chickens are still being inspected by the USDA, while fish and shellfish are still being inspected by the FDA.

But without federal funding the FDA’s routine food inspection can’t be scheduled as usual.