In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to four seasoned professionals with experience in the regulatory, academic, and industry spheres about the increasing rate of U.S. food recalls and how the foodborne illness outbreak investigation system could be improved.
To help paint a picture of how federal food safety and public health regulatory agencies have been affected by the second Trump Administration, this article provides a 2025 timeline summarizing major happenings at HHS, FDA, CDC, and USDA, including firings and hirings, restructurings, policy changes, program and budget cuts, and other actions.
In this year-end episode of Food Safety Matters, we round up the top stories of 2025, covering U.S. federal food safety policy changes under the Trump Administration, MAHA- and state-led moves against food additives of concern and ultra-processed foods, infant formula safety, science on Listeria and biofilms, ongoing monitoring of avian flu, and AI food safety applications.
In a retrospective analysis of two Listeria monocytogenes outbreaks linked to packaged salads, CDC epidemiologists underline key learnings and suggest proactive measures for industry.
Previously serving as the Surgeon General of Louisiana and a U.S. Representative for the state of Louisiana, Ralph Abraham, M.D., D.V.M. has practiced both family and veterinary medicine throughout his career.
The Safe Food Coalition, comprising seven influential stakeholder groups, has written a letter to FDA, CDC, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging the agencies to take immediate action to protect infant formula, in light of the ongoing ByHeart infant botulism outbreak.
The retail foodservice industry’s challenge in preventing foodborne illness comes from gaps in prevention—i.e., the interpretation, implementation, and execution of existing knowledge about root causes and hazards controls.
Among the approximately 1,300 CDC staffers that were laid off by President Trump amid the government shutdown reductions in force (RIFs), 700 were quickly rehired, including the entire staff and editors of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers.
The Trump Administration revealed that it will begin mass layoffs of furloughed federal employees as the government shutdown continues, with HHS, which includes CDC and FDA, reported to be among the hardest hit agencies.
A CDC analysis of multistate foodborne illness outbreak investigation data for 2023 reveals the foods and pathogens that caused the greatest number of outbreaks and illnesses. A single salmonellosis outbreak linked to cantaloupe accounted for 407 illnesses.