The staffing uncertainty, on top of efforts to cancel union contracts for FSIS employees, could exacerbate morale challenges among federal food inspectors, said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports.

FDA and CDC

The FDA will retain more than 13,000 employees, or about 86 percent of staff, according to the agency’s shutdown plan. The plan does not specify how many employees will stay on from specific departments.

Some food inspectors were impacted by staff cuts earlier this year, but the FDA was later able to bring those employees back, Ronholm said. The shutdown could delay or make it more difficult to bring those inspectors back.

“It’s certainly something to be very concerned about, what kind of impact this is all having on the inspection force and we have to be, as a consumer, just really concerned about the energy level and morale of these inspectors after everything that they’ve been going through,” Ronholm said.

Unlike the USDA, the FDA does not have statutory guardrails to ensure continuous inspection. Under the shutdown contingency plan for the FDA, routine inspections will be suspended. Instead the agency will focus on “for-cause” inspections, or those tied to foodborne illness outbreaks, recalls or consumer complaints.

But Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at Consumer Federation of America, pointed out that it may take federal employees longer to determine there is cause to inspect a facility. Under its contingency plan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is suspending analysis of surveillance data for reportable diseases, including foodborne illness, he said.

“This means that authorities may be slower to solve a nationwide outbreak,” said Gremillion in a statement.

At the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 4,891 employees will stay on through the shutdown—about 35 percent of staff. Of the remaining 8,742 staff that will be furloughed, the plan notes that 1,563 are already in Reduction in Force status, but it’s unclear if that means they were already slated to be fired or will be let go as part of the shutdown plan.