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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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)
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
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
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
USDA to Close Five FSIS District Offices
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will close district offices in Lawrence, KS; Beltsville, MD; Minneapolis, MN, Albany, NY; and Madison, WS.
The budgets cuts and consolidations, leaving 10