Donald Trump and his acolyte, RFK, Jr., vowed to “Make America Healthy Again.”
They lied.
Watch what they do, not what they say.
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC host
Trump, aided by RFK, Jr., is dismantling the US food safety network
RFK, Jr. fired every single member of FDA’s media communications team, including its director.
The proposed 2026 budget for the FDA outlines plans to shift the responsibility for routine food safety inspections to the states.
The 2026 FDA budget also proposes an overall reduction in full-time equivalent staffing for the Human Foods Program of 7.6%, with the Office of Investigations and Inspections reduced by 2.0%, and the Field Laboratory Operations by 54.4%.
Staff cuts at the FDA have already put the brakes on the agency’s ability to trace the source of foodborne disease outbreaks. In 2024, the agency investigated a total of 26 outbreaks and identified the source of 20 (77%). In 2025, the FDA has closed its investigation of 11 outbreaks after identifying the source of only 4 (36%); an additional 11 investigations remain under investigation, with a food source having been identified in four (36%).
The USDA withdrew its proposed rule that, for the first time, would have placed (very lenient) limits on the presence of certain Salmonella strains in raw poultry.
The US Justice Department unit that used to handle drug and food safety cases on behalf of the FDA has been disbanded.
The EPA has rolled back clean air standards and eased limits on pesticide use.
What can US consumers expect as a result of these roll-backs?
More foodborne disease, including more hospitalizations and deaths
More outbreaks going unreported and unsolved
Inconsistent food safety inspection standards from state to state
I have been a food safety microbiologist for more than fifty years. I have worked both in government and in the private sector.
During my entire career, I have advocated for a single agency to oversee food safety—an agency with Cabinet-level representation that would replace the current fragmented regulatory system in the United States.
But desperate times require desperate measures. The federal government is not doing its job. Nor does it plan to in the future.
States can—and must—act
The various states that have the resources to do so must take action to protect their population from the failures of the federal government.
Democrat-led states on both coasts have already acted to counter the CDC vaccine panel’s new recommendations that would restrict access to respiratory (Covid-19, influenza, and RSV), MMRV, and Hepatitis B vaccines.
The West Coast Alliance is comprised of California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. The Northeast Public Health Collaborative includes New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, as well as New York City’s Department of Health.
If a state government can override federal recommendations on vaccine access, the state also can superimpose its own food safety regulations on those handed down by the FDA and USDA in order to protect its population from disease.
I propose that the West Coast Alliance be extended to encompass food safety, including the following actions:
Develop and implement a common set of inspection standards for produce and processed foods originating in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii.
Embargo all shipments of produce and processed foods originating from outside the borders of its member states unless each individual shipment is accompanied by a Certificate of Analysis issued by an accredited laboratory.
Regulate discharge emanating from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the member states—discharge that pollutes the soil in which crops are grown and the water used to irrigate those crops.
I am not suggesting these actions will be easy or inexpensive. But, as the federal government no longer appears to be interested in protecting the public from unsafe food, the states that are able to do so must take over.
“Reads like a true crime novel” – Food Safety News
Interested in learning more about food safety and the history of foodborne disease outbreaks and investigations?
Click on the link to listen to a short excerpt, then follow the buy links to add a digital, print or audio copy to your personal library.
The outbreak strain was first recovered from a patient in December 2023, and the most recent confirmed case dates back to September 2024. No cases have been reported in 2025.
The CDC investigated this outbreak in 2024. Epidemiological evidence revealed that the outbreak victims were in healthcare settings such as hospitals prior to becoming sick, and the likely source was a food served in those types of institutions. However, there was not enough information available to link the illnesses to a specific food or supplier.
The CDC reopened its investigation in April 2025, when it learned that the outbreak strain had been found during an FDA site inspection at Fresh & Ready Foods.
Outbreak victims range in age from 41 to 87 years, with a median age of 60. Nine of the ten victims were male. Eight of the ten victims lived in California; the other two resided in Nevada at the time they became ill.
Investigators from state and local public health agencies are interviewing outbreak victims to determine what foods they may have eaten in the weeks before becoming ill. Of the six people with information, all six (100%) were hospitalized before becoming sick. Records reviewed from facilities indicated that ready-to-eat foods made by Fresh & Ready Foods were served in at least three of the facilities.
The company has recalled more than 80 products bearing USE-BY dates from 4/22/2025 to 05/19/2025. The recalled products, which were sold under the brand names Fresh & Ready Foods,City Point Market Fresh Food to Go, and Fresh Take Crave Away, were distributed between 04/18/2025 and 04/28/2025 in vending and breakroom areas within corporate offices, medical buildings, and healthcare facilities located in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Washington.
The FDA inspected the company’s San Fernando, CA, facility on seven occasions between 2009 and 2022. On six of the seven occasions, the operations were classified as either Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI) or Official Action Indicated (OAI).
No Warning Letter appears to have been issued in response to the 2017 (OAI) inspection.
2009: Voluntary Action Indicated
Gloves used in food handling are not maintained in an intact, clean, and sanitary condition
Sanitizing agents are unsafe under conditions of use
Failure to hold ingredients in bulk or in suitable containers so as to protect against contamination.
2010: Voluntary Action Indicated
Suitable outer garments are not worn that protect against contamination of food and food contact surfaces
Your HACCP plan lists monitoring frequencies that do not ensure compliance with the critical limit
Your HACCP plan includes a corrective action plan that is not in accordance with 21 CFR 123.7(b) to ensure affected producct is not entered into commerce
Your verification procedures do not include, at a minimum, reassessment of the HACCP plan whenever modifications to the process are made
Your records do not include the date and time of the activitiy the record reflects
Your sanitation control records do not accurately document the conditions or practices observed at your firm
2011: No Action Indicated
2015: Voluntary Action Indicated
You are not monitoring the sanitation conditions and practices with sufficient frequency to assure conformance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices including protection of food, food packaging material, and food contact surfaces from adulteration.
2017: Official Action Indicated
You did not maintain your plant in a clean and sanitary condition and keep your plant in repair
You did not implement the monitoring procedures listed in your HACCP plan
Your HACCP plan does not list the food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur
Your HACCP plan does not list one or more critical control points that are necessary for each of the identified food safety hazards
2018: Voluntary Action Indicated
You did not implement the monitoring procedures listed in your HACCP plan
You are not monitoring the sanitation conditions and practices with sufficient frequency to assure conformance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices including prevention of cross-contamination from insanitary objects
2022: Voluntary Action Indicated
Your hazard analysis did not identify a known or reasonably foreseeable hazard that required a preventive control
Your process controls procedures did not include appropriate parameters and maximum/minimum values
Your HACCP plan does not list the food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur
Your HACCP plan lists monitoring procedures and frequencies that do not ensure compliance with the critical limit
What you need to know
The joint investigation by the CDC, the FDA, and the USDA is ongoing. Here are the FDA’s recommendations for keeping yourself and your loved ones safe.
Recommendations
Consumers, distributors, and foodservice customers, who purchased or received recalled Ready-to-Eat (RTE) foods manufactured by Fresh & Ready Foods, LLC, should not eat, sell, or serve these products.
Foodservice customers, retailers and consumers who purchased or received the recalled products, should carefully clean and sanitize any surfaces or containers that it touched. Follow FDA’s safe handling and cleaning advice to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Listeria can survive in refrigerated temperatures and can easily spread to other foods and surfaces.
If you or your family member have symptoms of listeriosis you should contact your health care provider to report your symptoms and receive care.
Recommendations for At-Risk Groups
Listeria is most likely to sicken pregnant women and newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems. Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.
Pregnant women typically experience only fever, fatigue, and muscle aches. However, Listeria infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn.
Call your healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms of a Listeria infection.
“Reads like a true crime novel” – Food Safety News
Interested in learning more about food safety and the history of foodborne disease outbreaks and investigations?
Click on the link to listen to a short excerpt, then follow the buy links to add a digital, print or audio copy to your personal library.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has hammered another nail into the coffin that holds the remains of the US food safety system.
The FSIS has run away from its proposed rule to limit Salmonella contamination in raw poultry, bowing to opposition from the US poultry industry. The notice of withdrawal appeared in the April 25, 2025 issue of the Federal Register.
The proposed rule, which had been in the works for three years and was published in the Federal Register on August 7, 2024, would have defined as adulterated raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, comminuted chicken, and comminuted turkey products contaminated with certain Salmonellalevels and serotypes.
The August 2024 proposal represented nothing more than a first baby step toward controlling Salmonella in raw poultry in the US, focusing primarily on just five of the more than 2400 known serotypes, and only requiring action on other serotypes if they are present at a concentration of more than 10 viable microbes per gram or milliliter of sample.
Compare this to countries such as France, where the presence in raw poultry at any level of any Salmonella serotype is grounds for a recall.
Is this reversal of a proposed minimal control over Salmonella in raw poultry a precursor to the abandonment of other regulatory policies relating to microbiological adulteration of raw meats and poultry?
Will FSIS withdraw its rule limiting Salmonella in raw, breaded poultry products?
Will FSIS withdraw its rule mandating HACCP-style food safety programs in the meat and poultry industry?
I hope not.
Here is a list of some of the other steps reported to have been taken by the FDA in the administration’s quest to deregulate food safety and decimate accumulated decades of expertise in the agency.
Communications teams at the FDA—CUT
FOIA response teams at the FDA—CUT
FDA milk quality testing program—CUT
Responsibility for FDA routine inspections likely to be shifted to individual states—whether or not the states have the budget or the expertise to carry the inspections out according to FDA requirements
FDA research into methods for detecting bird flu in milk, cheese, and pet foods—CUT
Personnel at two FDA labs—Moffett Lab in Chicago and the Alameda lab in the San Francisco area—were fired; some have been rehired after it was determined they were fired in error.
Meanwhile, the FDA is investigating two new outbreaks of Salmonella Enteritidis infections, totaling 72 cases so far. The source(s) of the outbreaks have not yet been determined; however, Salmonella Enteritidis is a common contaminant in raw poultry and raw eggs. If eggs from Turkey are the source, will we ever be told?
“Reads like a true crime novel” – Food Safety News
Interested in learning more about food safety and the history of foodborne disease outbreaks and investigations?
Click on the link to listen to a short excerpt, then follow the buy links to add a digital, print or audio copy to your personal library.
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