Government shutdown stops FDA food safety inspections

There are important things we are not doing," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb says.

An employee stocks the shelves with fresh peppers in the produce section of a Whole Foods Market store in Dublin, Ohio, on Nov. 7, 2014.Ty Wright / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Jan. 9, 2019, 6:59 PM GMT
By Maggie Fox
The ongoing federal government shutdown has stopped most food safety inspections, but the Food and Drug Administration is planning to resume at least some of them. To do it, the agency will have to force furloughed workers to come back without pay.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said he is trying to pinpoint the most essential inspections, while making sure that employees do not suffer too much.

“There’s no question of whether it’s business as usual at FDA,” Gottlieb told NBC News.

“It’s not business as usual, and we are not doing all the things we would do under normal circumstances. There are important things we are not doing.”