Planning a Holiday Dinner? Thank a Federal Food Inspector

Back in April, I was in my local grocery store and saw empty coolers and shelves where rows of beef products once stood. A dinner as basic as a burger would be off the menu that night. I was not alone in that experience. 

Just days into the pandemic, it became abundantly clear that many Americans feared they would not have access to a safe and abundant food supply. However, the predictions of drastic food shortages did not come to pass. This is partly due to the hard-working inspectors at the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, who continued to carry out their essential duties during a national crisis.

Since the early 1900s, USDA has placed inspection personnel in every meatpacking plant in the country to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of these products. We are required to be there by law—if our inspectors are not there, those plants do not operate. If the plants do not operate, people go hungry. 

As America faced this pandemic, we managed the challenge with two goals in mind. First, to keep our personnel safe. Second, to maintain the safety of the nation’s meat, poultry and egg supplies. 

From the beginning of the pandemic, our agency followed the guidance of public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As that guidance evolved, our response kept pace. In the early days, as information about COVID-19 was evolving, FSIS, out of an abundance of caution, took the unprecedented step of allowing more than 700 employees in high-risk health categories to stay home with full pay. The rest of our FSIS and USDA team rose to the occasion, often taking on more work, extra hours, and expanded duties. They did it without hesitation; they did it to protect the most vulnerable among our team, their friends, their family. They did it because people have to eat.

As CDC guidance evolved to recommend face coverings, we moved to procure protective gear along with other sectors. As we all know, these supplies initially were being diverted to healthcare personnel and first responders, so we found alternative solutions. While we could not procure large quantities of gear in March and April, our employees reported that masks and other face coverings could be found at the local level. In response, we funded employees’ purchases of face coverings or materials to make face coverings. This allowed our employees to promptly get the coverings they needed and that were available.

Ultimately, FSIS acquired enough protective gear, disinfectants, and supplies to protect our employees, totaling approximately $4.5 million worth of gear and supplies by the end of September. This included the delivery of more than 2 million disposable face masks and over 70,000 cloth face coverings to FSIS employees nationwide. By late spring and to this day, every employee is required to use a face mask and face shield in the performance of their duties and every employee has easy and rapid access to these protective supplies. 

This is deeply personal for me and it should not come as a surprise that we stand by our agency’s response. As the leader of an agency with more than 9,000 employees spread across all 50 states and in nearly 6,500 regulated establishments, I am proud to say the agency has managed this storm very well.

This is not the story you will read about in the news or on social media. What has been circulating are coordinated special interest campaigns that are not based on the facts. These false narratives demean the work that we do and the civil servants behind that work.

It is in the toughest of times and in the face of our greatest challenges that we truly understand our strengths and our resilience. These qualities embody the way in which the brave public servants of the Food Safety and Inspection Service have faced this pandemic and continue to face it every day.

Paul Kiecker was named Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in March 2020.