• About
  • Contact
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
The US Inquirer
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • National
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Crime
  • World
PRICING
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • National
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Crime
  • World
No Result
View All Result
The US Inquirer
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say

by Alexander Tin
April 17, 2025
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say

RELATED POSTS

Trump heads to the Hill to rally Republicans for his budget bill

Trump won’t force Medicaid to cover GLP-1s for obesity. A few states are.

The Food and Drug Administration is drawing up plans that would end most of its routine food safety inspections work, multiple federal health officials tell CBS News, and effectively outsource this oversight to state and local authorities.

The plans have not been finalized and might need congressional action to fully fund, said the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, denied that the FDA was making plans to do this.

Some FDA employees have been working on a possible shift of the agency’s routine food efforts to states for years, one current and one former official said, which could free up resources to focus on higher priority and foreign inspections. The FDA already outsources some routine food inspections through contracts with 43 states and Puerto Rico. 

“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, told CBS News.

Multiple federal health officials said that the state work currently is often reserved for lower-risk inspections. A third of routine food safety inspections were done by states over recent years, a Government Accountability Office report said earlier this year. 

The FDA is ultimately responsible for the safety of much of the U.S. food supply that’s distributed over state lines, like packaged products, seafood, eggs and produce. Some kinds of meat are regulated by a different agency inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

Some higher-risk routine food inspections would likely remain at the FDA under the plans, two officials said. For example, agency staff currently conduct annual visits to infant formula manufacturers, which are overseen separately as “critical foods” inspections. States would also not be able to take on the work of routine inspections in foreign food facilities. 

It is unclear what would happen for the states that do not have contracts with the FDA to conduct food inspections, which range from Hawaii to Delaware. 

In addition to routine inspections, the FDA also does other kinds of inspections in response to issues, like a visit to a Colorado onion processor last year linked to the McDonald’s Quarter Pounders outbreak that turned up dozens of violations. 

Internal planning around the possibility of outsourcing its routine inspections first picked up after 2010, the former FDA official said, when the agency was working on implementing major food safety legislation passed that year.

The official likened the plans to the FDA’s Grade A Milk Safety Program, where states fund the majority of oversight work themselves and have agreements with the agency to standardize how the industry is regulated.  

Some states and advocacy groups have called for years for the FDA to move its routine food inspections out to states. States can often do inspections at a lower cost than the FDA, while meeting the same standards, they have argued.

“FDA audits have determined states inspections to be high quality, and the costs show them to be a good economic value. There is significant cost to managing two systems also,” said Steve Mandernach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, in a statement.

Mandernach drew a parallel to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, under which hospitals and nursing homes are largely inspected by state agencies but overseen by the federal government. 

He also pointed to how the FDA regulates produce farms. The FDA has agreements with most states to pay for routine inspections conducted by local agriculture departments, where they often handle inspections and enforcement themselves.

“Further, we implemented this type of program with produce already and it has been successful, expanding and leveraging those lessons can only provide greater value to the taxpayers, increase oversight of manufacturers, and improve food safety,” he said.

Ending the FDA’s work to do its own routine food safety inspections might also help alleviate an issue elsewhere at the agency: a backlog of inspections overseas, as well as in other markets like medical products. 

In the past, FDA inspectors had been trained to do multiple kinds of inspections, officials said, instead of specializing only in food safety inspections.

Steep layoffs at the office’s support staff is expected to result in cutbacks to the number of inspections that can be done by the agency, CBS News previously reported. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has also greenlighted plans to hire contractors to attempt to plug the hole left by the laid-off workers.

“In theory, relying on states to do more routine food inspection work could lead to better food safety,” said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, in an email to CBS News. 

Gremillion cautioned that a transition in how food inspections are done by the FDA would take significant time and resources. 

“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 deserves suspicion,” he said.

More from CBS News

Alexander Tin

Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers federal public health agencies.

Share6Tweet4Share1

Alexander Tin

Related Posts

Trump heads to the Hill to rally Republicans for his budget bill
Politics

Trump heads to the Hill to rally Republicans for his budget bill

May 20, 2025
Trump won’t force Medicaid to cover GLP-1s for obesity. A few states are.
Politics

Trump won’t force Medicaid to cover GLP-1s for obesity. A few states are.

May 20, 2025
What’s next for House budget battle as Speaker Johnson calls latest move a “big win”
Politics

What’s next for House budget battle as Speaker Johnson calls latest move a “big win”

May 19, 2025
Doctor explains how Biden’s prostate cancer could have advanced undetected
Politics

Doctor explains how Biden’s prostate cancer could have advanced undetected

May 19, 2025
DOJ opens investigation into City of Chicago hiring practices
Politics

DOJ opens investigation into City of Chicago hiring practices

May 19, 2025
Mahdawi graduates from Columbia after ICE detention, tells CBS he feels “victorious”
Politics

Mahdawi graduates from Columbia after ICE detention, tells CBS he feels “victorious”

May 19, 2025
Next Post
NSC rebuilding with aides aligned with MAGA agenda, sources say

NSC rebuilding with aides aligned with MAGA agenda, sources say

Mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia meets with Maryland senator in El Salvador

Mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia meets with Maryland senator in El Salvador

Recommended Stories

Poll: Trump first 100 days seen as bringing big changes, too much tariff focus

Poll: Trump first 100 days seen as bringing big changes, too much tariff focus

April 27, 2025
What’s behind Trump’s focus on business deals during Saudi visit

What’s behind Trump’s focus on business deals during Saudi visit

May 13, 2025
Trump says less than 2 dozen hostages believed to be alive in Gaza

Trump says less than 2 dozen hostages believed to be alive in Gaza

May 6, 2025

Popular Stories

  • Did Trump put his hand on the Bible? Here’s what to know about the tradition.

    Did Trump put his hand on the Bible? Here’s what to know about the tradition.

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Trump warns Walmart against raising prices, tells company to “eat the tariffs”

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Reactions pour in after former President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • House passes “Take it Down Act,” sending revenge porn bill to Trump

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • After Springsteen calls him “treasonous,” Trump criticizes rock star’s skin

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
The US Inquirer

© 2023 The US Inquirer

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Ethics
  • Fact Checking and Corrections Policies
  • Copyright
  • Privacy Policy
  • ISSN: 2832-0522

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • National
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Crime
  • World

© 2023 The US Inquirer

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?