Budget Cuts Won't Affect FDA Food Inspections

The Food and Drug Administration announced that the recent budget cuts will not in any way reduce the organization's food inspection.

Reports about The Food and Drug Administration having to eliminate thousands of inspections by 30 September have been making the rounds. However, the US regulatory body has confirmed that it will not reduce food inspections despite the budget cuts.

"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.

In an interview with USA Today last month, Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the agency may be forced to eliminate as many as 2,100 inspections because of the ordered budget reductions known as the sequestration. The number accounted for 18 percent of the total inspections carried out annually. The agency has been working to decrease the needed cuts for months, she said.

"The commissioner was clearly working off a worst-case scenario," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director with the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. "It's certainly a relief to hear that that scenario will likely not take place."

However, the FDA has reconstructed its budget to avoid eliminating inspections and has instead focused on cutting down on training and travel. An infusion of $40 million to fund the Food Safety Modernization Act has helped the FDA to achieve this. This act was formed in 2011 and is known as the most comprehensive food-safety law in generations

"Congress and the administration recognized the importance of food safety and realized they needed to make an exception" for it, said Chris Waldrop, director of the food policy institute at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington.