FDA Reportedly Reinstating Some Fired Food Safety Scientists, Inspection Support Staff
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According to the New York Times and CBS News, some fired food safety scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and terminated FDA food safety labs are being reinstated, as well as several inspectoral support staff members.
Originally reported by the New York Times, some FDA food safety scientists have been informed that they could expect to have their layoffs reversed, including those working for food safety labs in Chicago and San Francisco. Several dozen fired support staff for FDA inspectors have also been alerted that they would be reinstated. Official paperwork reversing the layoffs have not yet been delivered to these staffers, however.
Per CBS News, originally, nearly 200 FDA inspectoral support staff members were cut. Those who are being asked to stay at FDA are reportedly responsible for booking foreign inspection travel. Their terminations are said to have stalled a Biden-era pilot program to expand unannounced foreign inspections, with an FDA official reporting that, in one week since the cuts were made, less than 60 percent of the agency’s foreign inspections had been completed. Additionally, an FDA insider reported that more than $700,000 of expenses incurred by inspectors had yet to be paid due to support staff layoffs.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told CBS News that inaccurate data provided by HHS’ siloed human resources (HR) divisions was to blame for the erroneous layoffs, exemplifying “exactly why HHS is reorganizing its administrative functions.”
Previously, internal emails leaked by Reuters revealed that FDA staff cuts have resulted in the suspension of its quality control program for food testing laboratories, as well as the agency’s work to improve testing for bird flu in dairy and pet foods amid the ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak.
Thousands of employees at federal food safety and public health agencies have been terminated since the Trump Administration took office in January 2025. The sweeping reductions in force began with a preliminary round of layoffs announced in February that included 89 staffers in FDA’s Human Foods Program with “highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response,” per former FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones, who resigned as a result of the mass firings. A month later, in March, HHS announced a major restructuring that included the dismissal of an additional 3,500 and 2,400 staffers currently employed at FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Aside from FDA food safety toxicologists and microbiologists, fired HHS employees relevant to food safety include veterinarians in FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, Human Foods Program, and Office of Inspections and Investigations; almost all staff in FDA’s Division of Food Processing Science and Technology; and the entire Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch in CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.
FDA is also rumored to face major budget cuts that would shift 100 percent of the responsibility for routine food facility inspections to states, as well as a significant reorganization that would eliminate the agency’s product-specific centers in favor of five new function-focused offices.
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