The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not reduce its inspections program despite budget cuts. According to earlier reports, the agency was being forced to eliminate thousands of inspections by September 30. Apparently, the thinking has now changed to the contrary. “Our goal is to absorb the cuts without a risk to public health. We are working to manage the budget reductions through other mechanisms,” FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told news editors and reporters last month that the agency feared it could be forced to cut as many as 2,100 inspections, 18 percent of the annual total, by September 30 as a result of mandatory budget cuts, called the sequestration. The agency has been working to decrease the needed cuts for months, she said. The National Chicken Council understands feed mill inspections by FDA will continue at the usual rate.
The inspection numbers shifted significantly because FDA reconfigured its budget to avoid cutting inspections, focusing instead on decreasing travel and training, according to Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods. “Just figuring out” where the agency stood took time, he added. “These sound like simple questions, but in the budget world of the federal government they’re not,” Taylor explained. FDA was also helped by an infusion of $40 million to fund the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, which is one of the most comprehensive food-safety law in decades.
Exactly how the budget will play out is still being worked out. Overall, FDA came out “better off in 2013 than we were in 2012” in terms of the Food Safety Modernization Act but “eroded a little bit” when it comes to food safety, Taylor said. “It’s not like there’s no effect, but it’s not like we’re going to turn off one big chunk of the program and stop doing things.”
