Food Safety

What do I need to know about food safety?

Food safety is the set of practices that ensure that our food doesn’t make us sick or kill us. To be safe, our food must not contain viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens¹ that cause illness (like Salmonella and E. coli), must not contain dangerous levels of contaminants like heavy metals² or harmful chemicals,³ and must be labeled to indicate the presence of common allergens.⁴

The US food safety system is both complex and largely successful in maintaining a safe food supply: According to the widely used Global Food Security Index (GFSI),⁵ the US ranks third in the world in food quality and safety (far higher than its rankings for affordability and availability). The FDA emphasizes that this relative success is the result of the government’s proactive approach to food safety.⁶ Nevertheless, Biden-era changes had already weakened⁷ some parts of the US food safety system. Like other aspects of public health⁸ work — which, as a whole, receives about 3%⁹ of the US’s healthcare spending — food safety has struggled with chronic underfunding.¹⁰

Foodborne illnesses in particular remain a persistent public health challenge. A June 2025 report from the HHS Office of Inspector General (PDF)¹¹ estimates that each year, foodborne pathogens cause 48 million illnesses in the US, resulting in 128,000 hospital admissions — but only 3,000 resulting deaths. In recent years, foodborne illness seems to be increasing: In 2024, reports of confirmed severe illness and death from contaminated food doubled¹² from the previous year.

In short, the system as it stood on January 19, 2025, was already strained but mostly working.

Some historical context: The vast systems that ensure the safety of US food arose from previously common food safety threats.¹³ Before 1906, when the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act passed into law, there was no federal legislation addressing food safety. While some state governments had laws on the books, others had none. As a result, consumers who bought packaged food from shops and street peddlers¹⁴ could expect to find contaminants¹⁵ like gypsum in their flour, milk preserved with borax, coffee blackened with lead, and “cinnamon” made of brick dust.

In the 21st century, regulation protects us from hazards like these. Expanding on the legacy of those initial laws, the federal government is now in charge of coordinating prevention of food hazards, containing outbreaks, and guiding the country’s future food safety initiatives. State and local systems have developed as well: Some activities, like restaurant inspections, are carried out entirely by local governments,¹⁶ and the federal government also partners with state and local officials¹⁷ to carry out many of its food safety efforts.¹⁸ On this page, we focus on the federal government’s role in ensuring food safety.

How does the federal government affect food safety in the US?

Most of the federal government’s proactive food safety work is split across two agencies:¹⁹ The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees meat and poultry,²⁰ and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the safety of all other food.²¹ When things go wrong, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also play a vital role²² alongside the FDA and USDA in tracking and responding to foodborne illness.

The federal government:

• Sets food safety rules and guidelines: Federal agencies create rules²³ to ensure that food²⁴ is produced and distributed²⁵ safely. They also issue guidelines for consumers²⁶ and food establishments about how to prepare food safely.²⁷
• Inspects food production sites: Federal investigators at the FDA²⁸ and the USDA’s²⁹ Food Safety and Inspection Service³⁰ inspect both domestic and international food facilities (any site that manufactures, packages, or holds food) and commercial slaughtering plants for violations, like unsanitary conditions. When investigators find violations, they issue instructions to facilities to become compliant and, if necessary, enforce³¹ the rules³² through actions like injunctions to stop production.
• Monitors for illness and responds to outbreaks: The government monitors for foodborne³³ illnesses³⁴ (like E. coli³⁵ infections), mislabeled food (like undeclared allergens),³⁶ and chemical contamination (like heavy metals).³⁷ When there is a problem, federal officials at the CDC,³⁸ FDA,³⁹ and USDA⁴⁰ find the source, contain the situation, issue recalls,⁴¹ and communicate with consumers.
• Conducts research to improve food safety: Federal scientists at the FDA⁴² and⁴³ USDA⁴⁴ research food safety in the US and ways to improve it. For instance, government researchers investigate methods to kill pathogens in food,⁴⁵ explore the sources of food contamination,⁴⁶ and estimate the incidence and mortality of foodborne illness.⁴⁷

Note: Food safety is distinct from “food security,”⁴⁸ which addresses access to food (for instance by ensuring food is affordable and that there are no national shortages). Food safety is also distinct from “food quality,”⁴⁹ which deals with nutrition, taste, and marketability.

The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again campaign and associated policy efforts⁵⁰ mix food quality and safety concerns to argue that America’s food is “poisoning”⁵¹ Americans.

At the same time that they make these claims, though, the Trump administration has fired workers, stripped away rules, and removed oversight that has kept food from poisoning Americans for a century. Our goal here is to break down those changes to the food safety system and keep you informed of their ongoing effects.

What is happening?

The Trump administration is using the power of the executive branch to:

• Fire and push out CDC, FDA, and USDA workers who keep the US food supply safe. More on this
• Eliminate, delay, or downgrade rules designed to reduce foodborne illnesses and make it easier to trace outbreaks. More on this
• Decrease oversight of the government’s food safety efforts; reduce transparency about outbreaks, investigations, and food safety science; and diminish enforcement against companies who break food safety rules. More on this

We’ll explain each line of attack, along with the countermoves and resilience efforts we’re seeing across American society.

Attack: Firing and pushing out crucial food safety workers

Last updated: November 13, 2025

In February and March, the Trump administration fired hundreds, if not thousands, of food safety workers across the federal government in a series of mass layoffs. Through two executive⁵² orders,⁵³ they directed cabinet-level agencies to conduct cost-cutting layoffs with the guidance of the DOGE initiative.⁵⁴ The administration has not made the total number of fired workers or their various job titles public, but media reports, piecemeal announcements, and court filings let us assemble a picture of the damage:

• In February, hundreds of probationary (new or newly-promoted) FDA staffers were laid off,⁵⁵ including 89 workers⁵⁶ at the new Human Foods Program,⁵⁷ which oversees all the FDA’s food safety activities.
• At the end of March, a 10,000-employee layoff at⁵⁸ the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which houses both the FDA and CDC, cut a further 3,500 FDA employees.⁵⁹ Fired workers included lab scientists, Human Foods Program workers, communications staff,⁶⁰ and more.
• In the same March round of layoffs, hundreds of CDC employees working on food safety⁶¹ were also fired amid overall cuts of 2,400 CDC workers.⁶² Fired employees included instrumental players⁶³ in the containment of a 2023 outbreak of lead poisoning⁶⁴ from applesauce packets.

Some of these workers — including some Human Foods Program employees,⁶⁵ lab scientists in San Francisco and Chicago,⁶⁶ staffers responsible for booking inspection travel,⁶⁷ and all CDC employees working on food safety⁶⁸ —were later asked back. It is unclear how many rehired workers actually returned.

Thousands of workers, including top officials, in food safety–related agencies have also taken early retirement offers or resigned in protest:

• By early May 2025, 15,000 USDA employees⁶⁹ — about 15% of the USDA workforce — had taken resignation offers. More than 550 workers resigned⁷⁰ at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which handles meat inspections and responds to outbreaks of illnesses including bird flu.
• As of late May 2025, 1,200 FDA workers⁷¹ had taken early retirement offers.
• The Human Food Program’s director, Jim Jones, resigned in protest⁷² over firings he called “indiscriminate.” Michael Rogers, a top official overseeing food safety and drug inspections⁷³ at the FDA, retired abruptly in early May, reportedly due to frustrations with the new leadership.
• In August 2025, the head of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Daniel Jernigan, resigned⁷⁴ in response to the Trump administration’s firing of CDC director Susan Monarez.⁷⁵ Among other responsibilities, Jernigan oversaw foodborne illness surveillance at the agency.

Finally, at the same time as it has pursued mass job cuts, the Trump administration has terminated union contracts with employees at the USDA⁷⁶ and the FDA.⁷⁷

Layoffs, resignations, and the loss of recognized union representation have clear negative effects, including:

• Fewer FDA inspections: As of November 2025, the FDA’s inspection rate of international food facilities has hit its lowest point⁷⁸ since 2011 (excepting 2020-2022, when investigations were hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic). The FDA’s routine inspection of facilities, both domestic and international, helps prevent outbreaks before they occur. But the FDA was struggling to meet its yearly inspection targets⁷⁹ before the layoffs because of a staffing and resource shortage.⁸⁰ Together, early retirements, resignations, and the Trump administration’s hiring freeze have compounded the problem. Now 20% of inspector positions⁸¹ are vacant, doubling to 40% for inspectors of high-risk foods such as infant formula. On top of these staffing shortages, layoffs of crucial support staff also hamper⁸² inspections. As one employee explained,⁸³ “we are keeping inspectors but not the people who test the samples.”
• Less effective USDA inspections: The chair of the FSIS food inspectors’ union predicted⁸⁴ in August 2025 that the cancellation of union contracts at the USDA would have a “huge impact,” causing some inspectors to leave and compromising the ability of remaining workers to raise food safety concerns without fear of retaliation.
• Reduced quality control for food safety tests: As a result of the layoffs of lab scientists,⁸⁵ the FDA suspended three⁸⁶ quality⁸⁷ control⁸⁸ programs ensuring the reliability⁸⁹ of tests in its network of laboratories. These tests monitor for contaminants like bird flu, Cyclospora, and glyphosate, a pesticide.
• Reduced ability to keep foreign outbreaks from spreading to the US: The layoffs decimated⁹⁰ an office at the FDA that worked to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks abroad from spreading to the United States. A former official noted⁹¹ that the cuts had dire consequences for international coordination: “If Canada has a big outbreak, will they notify FDA and share that information? And if so, who would they even notify?”

While reporting provides a glimpse of job cuts’ harmful effects on agency functions, it is difficult to see the full picture. Some impacts are never reported publicly; when they are, their causes sometimes go unspecified. And the complexity of the US food safety system can make it impossible to disentangle the causal role of layoffs from other factors.

Take one notable example: In July 2025, the CDC scaled back its main program for tracking foodborne illnesses, a state-federal partnership called FoodNet.⁹² Instead of eight illness-causing pathogens, FoodNet now tracks just two.⁹³ Among the pathogens cut from the program is Listeria, which has caused multiple recent deadly outbreaks,⁹⁴ including an ongoing outbreak in prepared pasta⁹⁵ that has killed at least six people. The change comes amid⁹⁶ mass CDC layoffs as well as local⁹⁷ and state health department layoffs⁹⁸ caused by cancellation and delay⁹⁹ of federal grants.¹⁰⁰ But FoodNet’s scope reduction¹⁰¹ has not been definitively tied to Trump administration actions. A CDC spokesperson said in a vague statement that the changes would allow staff to “prioritize core activities.”

While some details remain hazy, the broad effects are clear: Mass job cuts make it more difficult for an already strained food safety system to fulfill its basic responsibilities of inspection, surveillance, outbreak response, and prevention. Experts warn¹⁰² that these negative impacts will accumulate, potentially making US food significantly less safe in the long term.

Where this stands

A lawsuit seeking to block the majority of the administration’s mass layoffs¹⁰³ temporarily halted cuts while the case proceeded. On July 8, 2025, the Supreme Court stayed this ruling,¹⁰⁴ permitting mass layoffs to proceed without congressional oversight. On July 14, 2025, HHS began finalizing layoffs¹⁰⁵ announced in April. Additionally, a July 23, 2025, stay granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allows these firings to proceed without advance disclosure to the public or the court to ensure their legality.¹⁰⁶

The FDA Commissioner has claimed¹⁰⁷ that they will conduct new hiring to replace any scientific reviewers or inspectors that took early retirement offers, but it’s not clear how this will work, given the federal hiring freeze and requirement that federal agencies get rid of four workers for each new hire¹⁰⁸ after the freeze ends.

At the USDA, while there have been few departures (PDF)¹⁰⁹ since May’s wave of resignations, more losses are expected,¹¹⁰ with a goal of 30,000 total resignations and layoffs across USDA programs. In late July, the USDA announced¹¹¹ that it would relocate more than half of its 4,600 DC-based employees to field offices, as part of a restructuring effort to “ensure the size of USDA’s workforce aligns with available financial resources and agricultural priorities.” The union representing USDA employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, denounced¹¹² the restructuring as a ploy to cut more jobs.¹¹³

Who will be affected?

Because teams that monitor safety threats in the food supply and respond to foodborne crises have been devastated by cuts, everyone who eats food in the US, whether it’s processed or purchased as whole ingredients, will be at greater risk of contracting foodborne illness or suffering from contamination. The cuts will slow the work of identifying and responding to tainted food,¹¹⁴ and chemicals and contaminants may not be detected before reaching the public supply.

Countermoves: Legislative & legal actions

• Coalitions of labor unions and nonprofit organizations¹¹⁵ and the attorneys general of 21 US states¹¹⁶ (including DC) have brought suits over the firings of probationary workers. And a large coalition of labor unions, advocacy organizations, and county and city governments¹¹⁷ has sued to block the mass layoffs for all classes of federal workers.
• The Merit Systems Protection Board¹¹⁸ has ruled that probationary workers are able to bring class actions against their removals.
• After the USDA announced its plan to relocate more than 2,500 DC-based employees, legislators in Congress expressed concerns to the USDA¹¹⁹ about the plan’s impacts on critical services. In early August, the USDA responded to this pressure¹²⁰ by opening a one-month public comment period. Since then, commenters and legislators have pushed for a longer, more formal commenting process¹²¹ and Congressional Democrats have continued to pressure the USDA for information about the relocation.¹²² The USDA has now extended¹²³ the comment period by one month, to September 30, 2025.

Attack: Eliminating or delaying food safety regulations

Last updated: November 13, 2025

At the FDA and USDA, the Trump administration has changed, walked back, and postponed rules aimed at reducing the risk of foodborne illness.

The FDA has delayed¹²⁴ a plan to finally enforce a data-reporting rule in the Food Safety Modernization Act — which was initially passed 15 years ago with bipartisan support.¹²⁵ The rule required that food producers report “traceability” data for select high-risk foods, to make outbreak investigations faster and easier.

At the USDA, two different rules governing the safety of meat and poultry, one on the books and one pending, are on the chopping block:

• The first rule limited “line speeds”¹²⁶ in meat processing plants. This rule helped¹²⁷ ensure the safety of the meat,¹²⁸ prevented worker injury,¹²⁹ and reduced needless cruelty¹³⁰ to the animals. Now, in accordance with the meat industry’s preferences,¹³¹ the USDA will extend waivers¹³² that allow some plants to increase those speeds, with plans to formally remove the requirement entirely — despite prior litigation that found the removal of similar restrictions unlawful¹³³ in the first Trump administration.
• Additionally, in April, the USDA withdrew a proposed rule¹³⁴ that would have made it illegal to sell dangerously Salmonella-contaminated poultry. Salmonella bacteria is widespread¹³⁵ in poultry sold in grocery stores and to schools, and is a frequent cause of food poisoning. The rule that the USDA withdrew had been three years¹³⁶ in the making and would have required companies to keep Salmonella levels under a certain threshold and test for the strains most associated with illness in people. If the bacteria levels were too high or any of the risky strains were present, the poultry would have been blocked from sale and subject to recall.¹³⁷

The Trump administration has also issued an executive order¹³⁸ that arbitrarily requires ten rules to be repealed for any one rule proposed. Any future regulation conducted by the FDA and USDA — such as the FDA’s proposed efforts to close a loophole¹³⁹ in the food additive declaration¹⁴⁰ process — will now necessitate the withdrawal of many existing rules.

Who will be affected?

The administration’s postponement and walkbacks of rules reverse longstanding efforts to reduce illnesses in favor of changes that increase risk.

Food safety advocates have criticized¹⁴¹ the salmonella rule’s withdrawal as forgoing an opportunity to reduce preventable illnesses and deaths from widespread contamination.¹⁴² Similarly, the food traceability rule would have allowed for faster removal¹⁴³ of contaminated food from distribution, reducing the severity of outbreaks.

Meanwhile, faster line speeds at meatpacking plants may increase the spread of illness from Salmonella, E. coli, and other bacteria. When line speeds are faster,¹⁴⁴ it is harder for inspectors to keep up with sanitary violations, and it is more likely that the guts of animals will be ripped open, both of which increase risk of contamination.

While most people who get food poisoning ultimately recover, some get seriously ill and die; for instance, the CDC estimates¹⁴⁵ that about 26,500 people in America are hospitalized and 420 people die from salmonella each year. The risk of hospitalization and death is highest in young children, older people, and people with weakened immune systems.

Attack: Reducing transparency, oversight, and enforcement

Last updated: August 21, 2025

On President Trump’s second day in office, the administration blocked the FDA and CDC¹⁴⁶ from communicating with the public without approval from an official appointed by President Trump. A memo from the Acting Health Secretary¹⁴⁷ set February 1 as the initial end date for the block and noted that agencies are also blocked from communicating in an official capacity with public officials, including governors and members of Congress. FDA communications remained shut down until the second week¹⁴⁸ of February, and many CDC communications still appear to be blocked¹⁴⁹ in late May. CDC workers also report that social media channels — one of the most direct forms of communication with the public — must be reviewed by HHS, who has taken over ownership of their accounts.

Layoffs at HHS have also specifically targeted the workers who report and explain food safety information to the media and the public. The former head of public engagement for the Human Foods Program, which oversees food safety for the FDA, has stated that the staff who would have handled communications¹⁵⁰ for outbreaks of foodborne illness — such as the undisclosed E. coli outbreak¹⁵¹ in lettuce that killed one person and sickened at least 88 — have been fired.

Teams who respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have also been fired¹⁵² at the CDC and FDA, along with media, communications, website, and social media workers in both agencies. A communication specialist fired from the FDA also reports that presidential appointees and their teams are altering language¹⁵³ in communications from FDA science teams.

At the same time as it has gutted outward communications, the Trump administration has eliminated key advisory and oversight roles related to food safety across the government. At the USDA, the administration fired and forcibly removed from her office¹⁵⁴ an Inspector General¹⁵⁵ responsible for oversight of the agency, Phyllis Fong. Fong had launched an investigation¹⁵⁶ into the USDA’s botched handling of an outbreak of Listeria¹⁵⁷ at a Boar’s Head meatpacking plant.

The administration also ended relationships with two unpaid expert committees¹⁵⁸ that advised the CDC, FDA, and USDA on meat inspection and microbiological food safety. Since those committees were disbanded, legislators in the Senate have criticized¹⁵⁹ the FDA for holding closed advisory panel meetings on various topics, including infant formula, in violation of a federal law¹⁶⁰ requiring advisory meetings to be public.

The administration has also taken actions threatening oversight and enforcement of the food industry. At the Justice Department, the administration disbanded¹⁶¹ a 215-person consumer protection team¹⁶² that prosecuted companies that maintain insanitary facilities or distribute adulterated or mislabeled food or drugs. Meanwhile, at the FDA and USDA, the administration has appointed and nominated multiple leaders¹⁶³ known for ties to food-industry lobbies and for making or defending decisions that threaten food safety and worker’s rights. For example, Kyle Diamantis, a lawyer now leading the Human Foods Program, represented Abbott Laboratories¹⁶⁴ after it failed to warn parents that its infant formula could raise the risk for a potentially fatal disease in premature babies.

Finally, the administration’s broad push to integrate large language model-based chatbots¹⁶⁵ into federal agencies threatens to erode the quality of food safety decisionmaking. At the FDA, staffers are now encouraged to use a new tool¹⁶⁶ based on Anthropic’s Claude large language model¹⁶⁷ in reviews of food safety data and labels, alongside drug review tasks. FDA staffers say the tool sometimes confidently reports incorrect information¹⁶⁸ and makes up nonexistent studies.¹⁶⁹ Lawyers, industry experts, and regulators are worried it reduces transparency.¹⁷⁰

Where this stands

After the FDA missed several court-ordered deadlines for producing records, some laid-off members of the team that previously responded to FOIA requests were rehired.¹⁷¹ Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leads the Department of Health and Human services, stated that he would restore all FOIA offices,¹⁷² but we’ve been unable to find confirmation that the CDC’s FOIA staffers — or their other fired communications workers — have been brought back.

In February, eight fired inspectors general, including Phyllis Fong,¹⁷³ sued.¹⁷⁴ Two days later, a federal judge refused to temporarily reinstate¹⁷⁵ them, pointing out that Trump would immediately fire them again by providing 30 days notice to Congress in compliance with the law. In late March,¹⁷⁶ the judge indicated she did not see how she could reinstate them, though she acknowledged the firing had failed to comply with the relevant statute.

In July 2025, the USDA lifted the suspension order¹⁷⁷ on the plant Fong investigated, despite recent severe sanitation violations at three other Boar’s Head facilities. Boar’s Head plans to reopen the plant soon.

Who will be affected?

Without clear, public communication about outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, recalls, and food safety principles (like safe cooking temperatures and kitchen procedures), everyone in the US is more vulnerable to illness.

More narrowly, the reduction of transparency and oversight reduces accountability for agency actions: With few or no workers available to respond to FOIA requests at the CDC and FDA, journalists and members of the public will be significantly less able¹⁷⁸ to hold agencies and their leaders accountable for their policies and decisions. The firing of the Inspector General at the USDA has resulted in the loss of a watchdog who makes sure the agency is doing what needs to be done to keep US meat and poultry safe to eat. As a former director of the CDC’s Office of Communications warns,¹⁷⁹ moves like these make corrupt actions from agency leaders easier to hide.

Losing enforcement teams focused on food safety at the Department of Justice is a blow against attempts to eliminate unsafe foods and ingredients — which, once again, could ultimately affect everyone.

Countermoves: Legal & legislative

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a suit¹⁸⁰ against the CDC over the destruction of its FOIA team.¹⁸¹ You can track the progress of this suit in the Just Security Litigation Tracker.¹⁸²
• In the absence of government enforcement by the Justice Department, attorneys are turning to class action suits¹⁸³ to enforce food safety and advertising standards under state law. In a recent example a case in California challenges purported deceptive labeling practices by a salmon company.