Who is Inspecting Your Food? Depends What You’re Eating
24th February 2009
If you go into a restaurant and order a cheese pizza that arrived there frozen, the FDA is in charge of inspecting it, the AP says. But if it was frozen and has pepperoni on it, that would be the Agriculture Department’s problem. Meantime, both the FDA and the Agriculture Department would be responsible if the pizza were made fresh at the restaurant and the pizza had meat on it.
There’s more. Some fish is inspected by the Commerce Department, the AP explains. And while the FDA handles most food-safety work, at least 15 government agencies play some sort of role.
Government agencies, like labor unions, are hell on wheels when it comes to guarding their turf — unless it’s a disaster, and then their fingers are out and pointing.