A Portland distiller was facing a fine from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for making hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KOMO.
The federal agency won't be enforcing the fine, but Tom Burkleaux of New Deal Distillery is still worried.
"It’s just bureaucratic callousness," he said. "I think someone just said, why are these small distilleries not paying the fees that these big corporations pay to make hand sanitizer. It’s even hard to say that because the fact that we would even go down that path-- it just blew our minds."
Burkleaux also said they had emergency authorization to produce sanitizer. The business was only given two days to stop creating it or pay $14,000, he added.
All American distillers were fined by the FDA for creating hand sanitizer during the pandemic, a product that was scarce in the early months last year. After public outcry on social media, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) said they directed the FDA not to enforce the fines. HHS officials also called the fine "a mistake" and was not cleared with leadership.
"I think they’ve just delayed things, they delayed the moment of reckoning," Burkleaux said. "Two days notice to basically say 'are you in this business or not?' was just cruel," he explained. "So I think they’ve delayed it and who knows what’s going to come up?"
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