Food and Spice Administration

The Food and Spice Administration, abbreviated FSA, was a government-sponsored organization dedicated to regulating the quality and safety of foods and medicinal drugs, also known as spice, throughout the Galactic Republic. They were not restricted to enforcing laws exclusively to the food and drug sector; they also enforced sanitation requirements on interplanetary travel and control of disease on products ranging from certain household pets to sperm donation for assisted reproduction. This agency was run through the Republic Health Department.

Organization
The FSA is an agency within the Galactic Republic Department of Health and Human Services responsible for protecting and promoting the galaxy's public health. The FSA is headquartered in Coruscant, Coruscant with 2,223 field offices supported by 130 laboratories located throughout the Republic's territories.

The Office of Regulatory Affairs, ORA, is considered the "eyes and ears" of the agency, conducting the vast majority of the field work the agency. Consumer Safety Officers, more commonly called Investigators, are the individuals who inspect production and warehousing facilities, investigate complaints, illnesses, or outbreaks, and review documentation in the case of medical devices, drugs, biological products, and other items where it may be difficult to conduct a physical examination or take a physical sample of the product. The Office of Regulatory Affairs is divided into five regions, which are further divided into 13 districts. Districts are based roughly on the geographic divisions of the Judicial System. Each district comprises a main district office, and a number of Resident Posts, which are FSA offices located away from the district office to serve a particular geographic area. ORA also includes the Agency's network of laboratories, which analyze any physical samples taken. Though samples are usually food-related, some laboratories are equipped to analyze drugs, cosmetics, and radiation-emitting devices.

The Office of Criminal Investigations was established to investigate criminal cases. Unlike ORA Investigators, OCI Special Agents are armed, and are not focused on the technical aspects of the regulated industries. OCI agents pursue and develop cases where criminal actions have occurred, such as fraudulent claims, or knowingly and willfully shipping known adulterated goods in intergalactic commerce. In many cases, OCI will pursue cases where major violations have occurred (e.g. conspiracy, false statements, wire fraud, mail fraud). OCI Special Agents often come from other criminal investigations backgrounds, and work closely with the, Republic Assistant Attorney Generals, and even the RDSF. OCI will receive cases from a variety of sources, including ORA, local agencies, and Republic Intelligence, and will work with ORA investigators to help develop the technical and science-based aspects of a case. OCI is a smaller branch, comprising of about 2000 agents galaxy-wide.

The FSA frequently works in conjunction with other federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Orbit Protection, and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Often local and state government agencies also work in cooperation with the FSA to provide regulatory inspections and enforcement action.

Scope and funding
The FSA regulated more than 1 quadrillion credits worth of consumer goods, about 25% of consumer expenditures in the Republic. This included 466 quadrillion in food sales, 275 quadrillion in drugs, 60 quadrillion in cosmetics and 18 quadrillion in vitamin supplements. Much of the expenditures were for goods imported into the Republic from outside markets in the and near the ; the FSA was responsible for monitoring a third of all imports.

When the bill was passed by Chancellor Orasco, the FSA was funded by the government with around 150 trillion credits the Republic instituted an increase of funding by 1.5% annually to cope with the increasing size of the population and consumer production/needs.

Behind the scenes
The Food and Spice Administration was directly influenced and based on the own food and drug regulation organization, the, abbreviated FDA for short.