Alaska’s food safety budgets are taking more cuts as the state tries to close a $4 billion budget deficit caused by low oil prices. Another proposed cut of $268,000 is going to mean fewer restaurant inspections and reduced surveillance for food borne diseases. The further reduction in spending comes after last year’s $624,000 funding cut…
Mississippi restaurant inspectors working from homes, cars
Mississippi restaurants will be inspected less often as inspectors are being told to work from home now that their offices have been closed by a financially strapped Mississippi Department of Health. Cuts in restaurant inspection are just part of the 13.6 percent cut, reducing the department’s overall budget to $63.1 million. The Mississippi Department of…
Survey: Staff Cuts Still Plague State and Local Food Safety Agencies
If you thought the nation’s slow economic recovery would be enough to reverse job losses at state and local health districts overseeing food safety, you would be wrong. In a beefed-up version of its annual survey, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) found that state and local health districts cut 3,400…
Former CDC Directors Urge Adequate Funding for Public Health
Several former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took to Politico this week to remind beltway insiders that the work CDC does is “a matter of life and death,” arguing for the need to strengthen rather than cut public health funding. The article comes as leaders in Washington wrangle over how to…
OMB Report Asks Congress to Avoid Sequestration
The sequestration slated to take effect at the first of the year is “bad policy,” and Congress should avoid it by taking action on deficit reduction, says a recent analysis by the White House Office of Management and Budget. A nearly 400 page document released late last week by the administration warns of the impact…
Curtailed Funds Continue to Hurt Local Public Health
Since 2008, local public health departments in the United States have lost nearly 40,000 employees, and the situation continues to deteriorate, according to the most recent survey, conducted in January and February, by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
One health official told NACCHO that “fiscal year 2013 is shaping up …
A Budget Cut Only the Produce Industry Could Love
You’ve probably never heard of the Microbiological Data Program (MDP) but if you eat fresh produce, you should, because it’s currently on President Obama’s budgetary chopping block. The MDP is a small ($5 million annually) pathogen monitoring program tucked away in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It tests fruits and vegetables for deadly bugs like …
The Cost of Cutting Food Safety
“There’s no money for . . .” well you name it. At a time when all manner of government services are being cut, trillions in bailouts to the financial services industry aside, why should food safety be spared? In fact, food safety protections are being systematically slashed across the board–and while this might achieve some …
Food Safety: The Industry Must Take Ownership
With the ongoing economic crisis there has been a need for governments across the globe to cut budgets. Food safety lacks the tangible benefits of, say, health care and it was somewhat inevitable that food inspection agencies would experience the brunt of such cutbacks.
In the United Kingdom, the Food Safety Agency that was established in …
Will Closing 5 FSIS Offices Impact Food Safety?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it would close 5 of its 15 Food Safety and Inspection (FSIS) District Offices as part of a consolidation that will decrease the agency’s budget and save taxpayer dollars.
This financially prudent move prompted Andrew Lorenz, deputy district manager of the agency’s office in Minneapolis, one of …