80 percent of America's food hasn't been inspected during the shutdown

Bread.
(Image credit: Bebenjy/Getty Images)

The federal government shutdown has led to waves of TSA agents quitting their jobs. It's caused national parks to be flooded with trash. And, perhaps most terrifyingly, it's suspended all Food and Drug Administration inspections of America's food facilities, The Washington Post reports.

In an interview Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency "has suspended all routine inspections of domestic food-processing facilities." The agency inspects 80 percent of America's food supply facilities, per the Post, including typically risky foods like dairy and seafood. Gottlieb is trying to find a way to resume inspecting "high-risk facilities" next week, he told the Post.

The FDA usually inspects 160 American processing locations per week, and about a third of them are "high risk," Gottlieb told the Post. He's so far canceled 50 high-risk inspections, but says under "new guidance," he could bring back enough furloughed workers to cover them. The agency is still looking at foreign imports and any "domestic facilities involved in recalls or outbreaks," the Post writes. Department of Agriculture inspections of meat, poultry, and eggs have also continued through the shutdown.

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President Trump and Democratic leaders were supposed to discuss ending the 19-day-long shutdown on Wednesday. But Trump apparently walked out of the room when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said "no" to Trump's border wall demand for the umpteenth time. Read more about what's at stake at The Washington Post.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.