Is Your Milk Still Safe? FDA Puts Dairy Testing on Hold
Before you reach for that next bowl of cereal, consider this: A major change in food safety oversight is underway. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration announced a pause on a key quality control program that monitors milk and other dairy products.
The decision follows widespread layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, as part of the Trump administration's broader initiative to streamline the federal government.
But that downsizing is already hitting essential operations. Among the programs being scaled back: testing for bird flu in dairy products and screening for harmful pathogens like Cyclospora in other foods.
Here's what's changing, plus what it could mean for your next trip to the supermarket.
The FDA has paused its testing of Grade A dairy, which includes both pasteurized and raw milk as well as cheese and yogurt. Until now, these products were required to meet the agency's strictest sanitary criteria before hitting shelves at your local grocery store, but that oversight is currently on hold.
to confirm that these products meet the agency's strictest sanitary criteria before hitting shelves at your local grocery store. But now, the oversight that verified these crucial safety benchmarks has hit a wall.
that meets its strictest sanitary criteria to finished products like pasteurized milk, cheese, and yogurt headed for store shelves.
Until now, these products were required to meet strict safety benchmarks. But that oversight has hit a wall.
The agency's food safety and nutrition division has been hit hard by workforce cuts. Most affected is the Division of Dairy Safety, housed in the FDA's Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, which announced it can no longer support key testing and data analysis.
In an internal email obtained by Reuters, the agency said it's now 'actively evaluating alternative approaches for the upcoming fiscal year' and promised to keep partner labs in the loop as plans develop.
This isn't the only rollback in food safety oversight. On April 18, Reuters reported that the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) — a joint program between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture — suspended its quality control program for food testing labs through at least September 30, citing staff shortages.
In an internal email, FERN's National Program Office noted that recent layoffs at the FDA's Human Food Program Moffett Center — including the loss of a quality assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists — are having an 'immediate and significant impact' on the program's operations.
The pause affects quality standards across nearly 170 laboratories, many of which conduct testing for contaminants like Cyclospora, a parasite that can show up in spinach, and glyphosate, a widely used pesticide found in crops like barley.
Unlike the FERN program, it's unclear how long the FDA's fluid milk testing program will remain on pause. Though no official timeline has been announced, an HHS spokesperson told The Independent 'that the proficiency testing was only being paused because of a transition to a new laboratory, and insisted that dairy product testing would continue.'
Whether these changes are truly temporary or just the beginning, one thing is clear: The future of food safety is suddenly less certain.
The post Is Your Milk Still Safe? FDA Puts Dairy Testing on Hold appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
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