Due to staffing cuts in the food safety and nutrition division, the FDA made the decision to suspend its quality control system that tests fluid milk and other dairy goods.. This decision was made in accordance with an internal email correspondence.
Following the laying off of 20,000 staff workers of the Department of Health and Human Services, which the FDA is included in – as part of President Trump’s attempt to decrease the size of the federal workforce, the suspension is another interruption to the nation’s food safety procedures following the departure of those personnel.
This month, the FDA has also stopped both current and new programs that assured reliable testing for the bird flu in cheese and milk, as well as diseases such as the parasite Cyclospora in other types of food.
According to the email issued from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety – directed to ‘Network Laboratories,’ – the agency has decided to halt its proficiency screening procedure for Grade ‘A’ raw milk (which adheres to the highest hygienic standards) and finished products. This decision will take effect on Monday.
As stated in the email, the Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Lab, a component of the FDA’s department responsible for the proper monitoring of food safety, is no longer in a position to offer lab-related assistance for competence assessments and data review. As a result, the testing program has been halted.
While proficiency testing will be stopped as the process of moving to a new lab is overseen, testing of dairy products will go on as usual, according to an HHS representative, who said that the laboratory was originally scheduled to be decommissioned prior to the personnel reductions.
The Trump administration plans to reduce the agency’s budget by approximately $40 billion.
The FDA’s competency evaluations guarantee uniformity and precision across all the country’s food safety labs. Laboratories depend on quality control tests to fulfill accreditation criteria.
In the absence of the FDA’s monitoring and regular quality assessments, a potential gap will now be there in the nation’s food safety framework, especially with milk-related diseases. Contaminants such as Listeria, Salmonella and Cyclospora could penetrate dairy products during manufacturing or packing processes. While uncommon, these germs may induce severe sickness, particularly in those with compromised immune systems, youngsters, and the elderly.
