FDA planning for fewer food and drug inspections due to layoffs, officials say

Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders are planning for cutbacks to the number of routine food and drug inspections conducted by the agency, multiple officials say, due to steep layoffs this week in support staff. 

Around 170 workers were cut from the FDA's Office of Inspections and Investigations, according to two federal health officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. 

The Department of Health and Human Services has said layoffs ordered by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with some 10,000 workers let go from the department, would not directly cut FDA's inspections staff. But in meetings among federal health officials, the agency's remaining leaders have grappled with how to deal with major delays and disruptions caused by the loss of administrative and management staff who had supported the agency's inspectors, according to two FDA officials.