The pause comes in the form of a temporary restraining order that Judge Susan Illston says she granted so as to “protect the power of the legislative branch.”
Announcement comes on heels of April 22 press conference regarding the agency’s focus on phasing out petroleum-based synthetic dyes in the nation’s food supply.
According to the New York Times and CBS News, some fired FDA food safety scientists and terminated FDA food safety labs are being reinstated, as well as several dozen inspectoral support staff, following mass layoffs handed down from the Trump Administration.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) has withdrawn the long-awaited proposed regulatory framework for Salmonella in raw poultry, which was designed to reduce the cases of human salmonellosis attributable to poultry consumption, saying that additional consideration is needed based on public comments.
In an April 22 press conference, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced FDA's plan to work with industry to phase out synthetic, petroleum-based dyes from the nation’s food supply.
The D.C. Section of Institute of Food Technologists (DC-IFT) is hosting “Food Policy Impact 2025,” a two-day event that will explore the future of food policies and their impact on food, nutrition, and health.
FDA is rumored to face significant budget cuts proposed by the White House that would shift 100 percent of the responsibility for routine food facility inspections to states. Additionally, due to layoffs, FDA has suspended its proficiency testing program for food testing laboratories and its efforts to bolster avian influenza testing in food products.
A coalition of 24 prominent food industry and consumer protection organizations, as well as seven expert individuals, sent a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins urging her to reinstate two key federal food safety scientific advisory committees, NACMCF and NACMPI.
Leaked to Inside Health Policy, an HHS proposed reorganization plan for FDA would eliminate the agency’s product-specific centers in favor of five new function-focused offices. An FDA restructuring was already very recently implemented in October 2024 after two years of development, which created a unified Human Foods Program and new Office of Inspections and Investigations.
As promised by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the end of March, thousands of layoffs at FDA and CDC have begun. A hazy picture of how those cuts are affecting food safety-related positions is beginning to emerge, and stakeholders and legislators are voicing their opposition.
