The Food and Drug Administration has once again started inspecting food facilities, despite the ongoing government shutdown.
Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb announced Monday that furloughed employees at the FDA have agreed to work without pay and begin the inspections that ended when the shutdown began on Dec. 22, The New York Times reported.
The workers are going to be restarting high-risk food inspections, including cheese, other dairy products and some fresh produce.
"Food safety inspectors furloughed during the federal government shutdown will be returning to work beginning Tuesday — but still without pay — so that the Food and Drug Administration can begin to resume inspections of some high-risk foods:" https://t.co/EMgRE1eR9f
— Tara Siegel Bernard (@tarasbernard) January 15, 2019
Inspections of meat and some egg products continued because the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service workers were required by Congress to continue full USDA inspections, but were also not paid for their work.
Gottlieb’s staff started reaching out to furloughed workers recently. He expected about 700 inspectors out of about 5,000 to return to their jobs, despite not getting a paycheck.
This work is being done by an inspectorate that's largely going unpaid. These men and women are the tip of the spear in our consumer protection mission. They're the very front line. And they're on the job. The entire nation owes them gratitude. I'm inspired by their dedication.
— Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) January 14, 2019
"We got an overwhelming response from our very dedicated and mission-driven field force who are coming back to work unpaid," Gottlieb told NBC News.
In addition to food testing, Gottlieb expects to have all medical product inspections that were affected by the government shutdown to be started by next week,
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Cox Media Group
