I briefly knew a food inspector at a beef kill plant. He just sit in his office all day drinking. Guess the plant supplied his booze.
“The FDA conducts about 8,400 domestic inspections a year, or an average of 160 a week.”
8,400 inspections.
Say 2000 hour work year, and 4 hours per inspection (including travel).
That’s 500 inspections in a year, so they would need 168 inspectors if it was a private firm.
In 2010, the FDA had almost 15,000 employees. Granted, they do more than just food inspections, but still.