The FDA’s food safety system is in freefall after massive cuts forced 2,500 layoffs, including essential inspectors and scientists. With 90% of seafood and most produce being imported, routine safety checks have virtually disappeared nationwide. Recent deadly outbreaks from onions and deli meats highlight the growing risks. The FDA claims commitment to safety, but with gutted resources and vanishing oversight, Americans might want to think twice about what’s really on their plates.
While Americans worry about what’s in their food, the FDA is slashing its workforce. The latest blow? A staggering 2,500 FDA employees just got pink slips this April, gutting the agency’s ability to keep our food safe. Among the casualties: frontline inspectors, scientists, and technical experts who actually know what they’re doing.
The FDA’s mass layoffs of 2,500 food safety workers leave Americans questioning who’s watching what goes into their meals.
Jim Jones, the head of FDA’s Human Foods Program, didn’t just quietly accept this mess. He quit in protest, calling the cuts “indiscriminate.” And he’s not wrong. These layoffs are part of a broader 10,000-position reduction across Health and Human Services. The U.S. currently imports 90% of seafood and most of our fresh fruits and vegetables, making these cuts particularly dangerous. Great timing, considering we’ve just had deadly outbreaks from onions, deli meats, and organic carrots.
Now the FDA is planning to end routine food safety inspections nationwide. Yes, you read that right. The same agency responsible for making sure our food doesn’t kill us is basically throwing in the towel. State food inspection funding? Slashed by millions. Laboratory support? Gutted. Response times for contamination and recalls? Let’s just say you might want to check those expiration dates extra carefully. The FDA’s last complete inspection of mandated food facilities was in 2018, revealing a dangerous gap in oversight.
The math is simple and terrifying. Fewer inspectors plus less funding equals more foodborne illness. Children, elderly folks, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system are especially at risk. Remember those recent outbreaks? One fatality from E. coli in onions, ten deaths from listeria in deli meats. That’s with inspections in place.
Food safety experts are sounding every alarm they can. State and local labs, essential for detecting and tracking contamination, are losing the resources they need to function. The Food Safety Modernization Act? Its implementation is being rolled back faster than expired yogurt off a grocery shelf.
The FDA claims it’s still committed to food safety, but that’s hard to swallow when they’re dismantling the very system designed to protect us. Without inspectors, without labs, without experts, we’re all just rolling the dice every time we eat.
