About 77 percent of the U.S. food supply is regulated by the FDA
, affects domestic inspections traditionally conducted every few years based on risk analysis. In lieu of these inspections, the FDA is considering other ways to conduct inspectional work while maintaining public safety and protecting both factory and FDA staff.
“This can include, among other things, evaluating records in lieu of conducting an onsite inspection on an interim basis when travel is not permissible, when appropriate,” FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement.— those involving specific problems that have come to the FDA’s attention — and to respond to natural disasters, outbreaks, and other public health emergencies under its purview. Routine inspections are just one part of all the necessary components that go into ensuring food safety: the duties carried out by plant workers, auditors, and inspectors. But, as, the FDA’s decision to postpone inspections indefinitely “represents a fresh blow to an interconnected system of food safety checks that is already under immense pressure.” Thanks to the coronavirus and social distancing measures, there may be fewer workers in plants; those who continue to show up may be tired or stressed, which could lead to more mistakes that slip through the cracks. Internal and third-party audits may also decline due to the pandemic. Add the suspension of routine inspections to the mix, and that leaves public health infrastructure as the last failsafe, typically in the form of monitoring for outbreaks of foodborne illness. But as the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continues to rise, the vast majority of public health resources have been shifted to address the coronavirus crisis; how much can be left to detect foodborne illness outbreaks? “What you’ve done is you’ve put the system under a huge amount of stress,” Barbara Kowalcyk, assistant professor of food safety and public health at Ohio State University, told The Counter. “So pretty much our failsafe with the public health department—I’m not going to say it’s non-existent, but I’m sure it’s greatly reduced.”
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