TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) -The partial government shutdown is having potentially harmful consequences that could stem from the food Americans eat, as the Food and Drug Administration has reduced inspections of the country's food supply.
FDA inspectors normally examine operations at about 160 domestic manufacturing and food processing plants each week and they oversee about 80 percent of the nation's food supply.
Samantha Kennedy, with the Wakulla County Extension, said these inspections play a vital role on what goes into our mouths.
"The United States has the safest food supply in the entire world and its because of the federal government, USDA and FDA and other inspection services that allows that to happen and so we don't think about it because outbreaks relatively speaking are so infrequently here that we just take it for granted that everything we put into our mouths is going to be safe," said Family Consumer Science Extention Agent, Samantha Kennedy.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, tweeted the following in regards to the shutdown impacts:
"We're taking steps to expand the scope of food safety surveillance inspections we're doing during the shutdown to make sure we continue inspecting high risk food facilities."
