{"id":30557,"date":"2019-01-25T19:01:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/?p=30557"},"modified":"2020-09-08T17:24:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T17:24:46","slug":"beyond-tsa-how-is-the-shutdown-impacting-our-national-food-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufcw.org\/beyond-tsa-how-is-the-shutdown-impacting-our-national-food-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond TSA: how is the shutdown impacting our national food security?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There have been a number of recent articles highlighting the air-travel safety issues caused by the government shutdown as more and more TSA agents are forced to call out from work. TSA agents are a visible reminder of the work that federal employees do, but some of the most damaging and dangerous impacts from the government shutdown are ones that are also out of sight of the average American. After all, many people pass through the airport, but not that many people regularly visit food processing facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Food Safety<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The FDA oversees 80 percent of our food supply and has suspended all routine inspections of domestic food-processing facilities (Washington Post<\/a>) and canceled more than 50 high-risk inspections. (Washington Post<\/a>) The FDA halted many inspections on January 9th, though the agency also resumed the most high-risk ones on January 15th, when FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced that furloughed food inspectors would be recalled to carry on their work without pay.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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40% of FDA workers are furloughed<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n\n
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40 percent of the FDA\u2019s employee\u2019s remain furloughed and it is important to recognize that just because inspections may not be considered \u201chigh risk\u201d does not mean they are \u201cno risk\u201d and should be left without inspectors. These decisions about what merits inspection or not are also being made without the informed consent of the American people, who trust that the food they are eating has been held to certain agreed upon standards and guidelines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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We re-starting high risk food inspections as early as tomorrow.  We’ll also do compounding inspections this week. And we started sampling high risk imported produce in the northeast region today. We’ll expand our footprint as the week progresses. Our teams are working.<\/p>

\u2014 Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) January 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

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