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In the last few years, foodborne pathogens have had devastating consequences that alarmed the public. Bacteria in infant formula sickened babies. Deli meat ridden with listeria killed 10 people and led to 60 hospitalizations in 19 states. Lead-laden applesauce pouches poisoned young children.
In each outbreak, state and federal officials connected the dots from each sick person to a tainted product and ensured the recalled food was pulled off the shelves.
Some of those employees and their specific roles in ending outbreaks are now threatened by Trump administration measures to increase government efficiency, which come on top of cuts already being made by the Food and Drug Administration’s chronically underfunded food division.
At the Food and Drug Administration, freezes on government credit card spending ordered by the Trump administration have impeded staff members from buying food to perform routine tests for deadly bacteria. In states, a $34 million cut by the F.D.A. could reduce the number of employees who ensure that tainted products – like tin pouches of lead-laden applesauce sold in 2023 – are tested in labs and taken off store shelves. F.D.A. staff members are also bracing for further Trump administration personnel reductions.
And at the Agriculture Department, a committee studying deadly bacteria was recently disbanded, even as it was developing advice on how to better target pathogens that can shut down the kidneys. Committee members were also devising an education plan for new parents on bacteria that can live in powdered infant formula. “Further work on your report and recommendations will be prohibited,” read a Trump administration email to the committee members.
Taken together, there is concern in the food safety field that the number of outbreaks could grow or evade detection. By limiting resources, the cutbacks pare back work meant to prevent problems and focus efforts on cases in which someone was already hurt or killed, Darin Detwiler, a food safety consultant and associate professor at Northeastern University, said.
Last year, nearly 500 people were hospitalized and 19 died from foodborne illnesses with a known cause, double or more than in the year before, according to the U.S. P.I.R.G. Education Fund, an advocacy group.
Government cutbacks affect a number of areas that officials were shoring up to prevent repeats of recent outbreaks. Here are the details of some of the changes:
Key committees shut down
Often in response to a deadly outbreak, a joint F.D.A. and Agriculture Department committee dived into the details to seek ways to improve detection and to limit illness and death.
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