The Food and Drug Administration has 60 percent of its 1,602 investigators on furlough

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This is a few days old. Maybe I missed it due to being off the grid last week.

The Food and Drug Administration has 60 percent of its 1,602 investigators on furlough, according to an administration spokesman – and the effects on the country’s food supply may last well beyond the shutdown’s expiration date, whenever that may be, experts said.

“There are 626 total FDA investigators excepted and reporting to work, and 976 who are furloughed,” Steven Immergut, the FDA's assistant commissioner for public affairs, said in an email on Tuesday. “These investigators work across the agency portfolio, not just on food products.”

Cuts to the number of FDA inspectors was one of the expected outcomes of the government shutdown that has now entered its second week, but food safety experts are now warning that the longer Congress goes without appropriating funds, the greater the effect may be on consumers across the country.

“During the lapse in appropriations, FDA will not be conducting routine domestic or international inspections of food facilities,” Immergut said in the email.

“Excepted FDA inspectors are prioritizing their work based on public health need and are being deployed to respond to recalls, outbreaks or other situations requiring immediate attention. However, they will not be conducting important routine work to support inspections.”

The Food Safety and Inspection Service issued an alert on Tuesday morning after 278 people fell sick in 18 states, an outbreak that the notice said is “continuing.” The alert linked the illnesses back to chicken products from a trio of Foster Farms facilities in California.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/08/20873175-routine-fda-inspections-of-food-facilities-suspended-due-to-government-shutdown?lite

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1. Time to go vegan from your own garden

if you have one.