
Mr. Robert Witte

Robert Witte was named deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Investigation, Enforcement and Audit (OIEA) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in December 2023. In this role, Witte leads efforts in the agency’s surveillance and investigation activities for incidents of foodborne illness outbreaks, recalls, natural disasters and intentional contamination, and oversees state and foreign audit programs and enforcement and litigation functions. His efforts support FSIS’ Strategic Goals 1: Prevent Foodborne Illness and Protect Public Health; 2: Transform Inspection Systems, Policies and Scientific Approaches to Improve Public Health; and 3: Achieve Operational Excellence.
Witte began his FSIS career in 2006, as a student intern egg products inspector in the Office of Field Operations’ (OFO) Des Moines District. During the three years he served in this role, he gained extensive experience in all realms of egg products processing. From 2009 to 2015, Witte was an enforcement, investigation and analysis officer (EIAO) in OFO’s Denver District. In this capacity, he closely evaluated food safety systems and reviewed scientific literature to support compliance determinations.
While an EIAO, Witte also worked with the Office of Policy and Program Development’s (OPPD) Risk, Innovation and Management Staff, where he developed industry guidelines and helped streamline the agency’s EIAO methodology and reports, concentrating focus on the most critical aspects of the food safety system. Witte then joined OIEA’s Federal State Audit Branch where he conducted technical evaluations and audits of State Meat and Poultry Inspection Programs.
Witte returned to OPPD as a senior staff officer, interacting with inspection personnel, regulated establishments and external stakeholders daily on policy inquires, while leading several working groups that effected policy, inspection procedures, sampling programs and data analysis. In 2018-2019, Witte briefly served as a senior program analyst with OFO’s Resource Management and Financial Planning Staff, where he built data analysis tools to pull real-time data across multiple systems to track staffing positions, vacancies and pending hiring actions. These experiences prepared him to serve FSIS as deputy chief of staff for the Office of the Administrator from 2021 to 2023, managing agency leadership time and priorities and resolving issues across the Agency.
Witte grew up on a ranch in the rural Nebraska panhandle, later earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, and a master’s degree in material chemistry from the University of South Dakota.