FDA Plans Reduced Food and Drug Inspections Amid Staff Layoffs, Officials Confirm

Senior Food and Drug Administration Leaders are considering reducing the frequency of routine food and drug inspections carried out by the agency, according to several officials. This decision comes as a result of significant layoffs among support staff earlier this week.

Approximately 170 employees were let go from the FDA's Office of Inspections and Investigations, as stated by two federal health officials who declined to be identified due to lack of authorization for public comments.

The Department of Health and Human Services has stated layoffs ordered by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , with some 10,000 workers let go From within the department, direct cuts to FDA inspection personnel wouldn’t occur. However, during gatherings involving various federal health authorities, the agency’s surviving leadership has been wrestling with strategies to address significant holdups and disturbances triggered by the departure of administrative and managerial employees who previously assisted those inspecting facilities, as stated by two FDA insiders.

"As part of HHS’ transformation initiative aimed at enhancing efficiency and responsiveness, these administrative tasks are currently undergoing streamlining measures. It’s important to note that FDAinspectors remain unaffected, ensuring that this crucial work continues uninterrupted," stated an HHS representative in an official release.

The inspection and investigation office must now collaborate with the FDA’s divisions for drugs and medical devices. food centers to reprioritize their workload for the rest of the year, one official said. That will mean trimming routine "surveillance inspections" for more urgent tasks, the official said, like inspections of firms where the agency has been alerted to a safety risk or follow-up visits to ensure that drugmakers or food producers have fixed previous violations.

One of the biggest immediate impacts on the agency's inspectors stems from the elimination of the office's travel operations division, one official said. The team's work ranged from booking flights to coordinating with the State Department to secure translators needed for inspections of drugmakers and food producers abroad.

"Starting from yesterday, all frontline investigators will now dedicate considerable time to handling their own travel arrangements and associated paperwork instead of using that time at companies to ensure the protection of American consumers," an FDA official informed CBS News.

A pilot initiative for surprise foreign inspections has likewise been halted due to budget reductions, according to an official, as this resulted in the loss of personnel responsible for swiftly obtaining translators globally.

The FDA has had ongoing difficulties in achieving its inspection targets, a problem exacerbated by the backlog that developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As reported in January, report by the Government Accountability Office, the FDA was facing a swelling list of food safety inspections that were on track to miss deadlines mandated by Congress, as they struggled to hire and retain qualified inspectors.

Even though present inspections continue, several FDA officials indicated that reductions are expected to exacerbate delays triggered by other hurdles brought about by the Trump administration’s attempts to decrease expenditures over the past few months.

For instance, several officials mentioned that field activities have been impeded due to a recent government-wide restriction of only allowing up to $1 for expenditures using credit cards. Any charges exceeding this amount necessitate an intricate authorization procedure.

An official mentioned that inspectors were instructed to schedule their examinations a month ahead of time because of the holdups resulting from the expenditure cap.