Urbandale will become the home of a new National Food Safety Center, the hub of administrative, technical and support operations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the department says.
The USDA announced the plan Thursday, April 23, as part of a restructuring of the FSIS. It said the new center will be in existing USDA space in Urbandale, which already has an outpost of the service and other USDA facilities, and will be the largest FSIS office in the United States, with about 200 employees.
The 8,500-employee Food Safety and Inspection Service protects the nation’s public health by ensuring meat, poultry and egg products are safe and properly labeled. Iowa, a U.S. leader in pork, egg, beef, turkey and milk production, is a major hub of large meatpackers, including JBS, Tyson and Smithfield, which employ thousands of workers at plants across the state.
The USDA also announced it will establish an FSIS science center in Athens, Georgia, and will be relocating about two-thirds of the about 300-member Washington, D.C., FSIS staff to “mission-critical locations,” including the new offices.
It did not say exactly how many of those roughly 200 workers will be sent to Urbandale, Athens and other locations.
The USDA said the science center will build on its existing Eastern Field Services Laboratory in Athens and expand its capabilities in microbiology, chemistry and epidemiology.
“This is about building a stronger, more resilient food safety system for the country,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a news release Thursday. “By establishing a National Food Safety Center in Iowa and expanding our scientific capabilities, USDA is ensuring that the Food Safety and Inspection Service is positioned where it can best support American agriculture and protect public health.”
“Consolidating support operations in Iowa, strengthening scientific work in Georgia, and aligning staff with mission needs will reduce duplication and improve accountability,” Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden said in the release. “This approach ensures that resources are used efficiently while maintaining the high standards the public expects from our food safety system.”
The USDA said the reorganization places “key functions closer to the agricultural and food production systems that FSIS regulates and supports.”
The reorganization does not affect the FSIS’ frontline inspection workforce, which the USDA said represents 85% of employees and operates across more than 6,800 regulated businesses. The FSIS is a “field-based public health agency, with the vast majority of our workforce serving on the frontlines in establishments across the country,” it said.
In addition to the changes in Iowa and Georgia, the USDA said it also will establish a presence in Fort Collins, Colorado, to support international activities.
As part of the reorganization, the USDA plans to sell one of its two headquarters buildings in Washington. The agency also recently said it will relocate headquarters of its U.S. Forest Service to Salt Lake City, Utah, from Washington.
More than 15,000 USDA employees took financial incentives to leave the agency last year as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reorganize and shrink the federal government.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: USDA says it will create a National Food Safety Center in Urbandale
Reporting by Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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