Trump’s Hiring Freeze Disrupts USDA’s Food Safety Testing

With President Donald Trump making sweeping changes to just about every facet of the U.S. during his first weeks in office, it should come as no surprise that he’s also altering the food industry.

President Trump has set forth a hiring freeze and paused new regulations for the Food and Drug Administration that could negatively impact food safety efforts, according to Food Safety News.

His decision to freeze hiring and programs at the FDA and USDA could be problematic to food safety measures. Delays in lab tests for products such as meat, poultry, processed egg products and catfish are expected through at least March 3. That could put the health of American consumers at risk, as food contaminants may not be discovered for several weeks, endangering shoppers. 

“Less than a week into the Trump Administration, we are already seeing the devastating effects of President Trump’s federal hiring freeze. News that the USDA does not have enough staff to properly test the nation’s food supply is extremely disconcerting and it is only a matter of time until a consumer ends up sick — or worse, dead,” U.S. Rep Rosa Delauro, D-CT told Food Safety News.

Trump’s hold order will not affect rules and regulations that have already been published in the Federal Register. Additionally, the hold order does not cover guidance documents, such as the draft sprout guidance the FDA published last week.

In August, a report from Stericycle ExpertSolutions showed a spike in recalls. The FDA had recalled more than 80 times more food units in Q2 than in Q1, and the USDA had recalled more than 45 times the amount of food in the same time frame. But this spike, many said, was not necessarily due to more unsafe food. More rigorous testing through the Food Safety Modernization Act — a large portion of which took effect last year — may have raised more warning flags for more preventive recalls.

While there are no executive orders that can have an immediate impact on FSMA’s tenets, slowing down the testing and warning procedure could roll back the advances the new law makes. Instead of being proactive, at least for a short while, recalls could again be driven by people actually getting sick from contaminated products.

Sources: Food Safety News and FoodDIVE