18-04-2025
FDA suspends food safety quality checks. How to protect yourself from salmonella, listeria
You may soon be on your own when it comes to avoiding contaminated food and foodborne illnesses.
The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for its food testing laboratories due to staffing cuts, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.
The proficiency testing program of the FDA's Food Emergency Response Network is designed to ensure consistency and accuracy across the agency's network of about 170 labs that test food for pathogens and contaminants to prevent foodborne illness. The program will be suspended at least through Sept. 30, Reuters reported.
"Unfortunately, significant reductions in force, including a key quality assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists at FDA's Human Food Program Moffett Center have an immediate and significant impact on the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) Proficiency Testing (PT) Program," says the email sent on Tuesday from FERN's National Program Office and seen by Reuters.
Since President Donald Trump's inauguration and the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, as many as 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services have been fired or left HHS agencies. The FDA was also forced in early April to suspend an effort to improve its testing for bird flu in milk, cheese and pet food due to staffing.
Jim Jones, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's food division, resigned earlier in April after nearly 90 of his 2,000 staff were fired, according to the New York Times, citing the 'indiscriminate' layoffs and 'disdain' displayed for qualified workers.
Kennedy, known for his controversial views on widely discredited theories such as vaccines causing autism, Wi-Fi causing cancer, fluoride in public water systems causing bone cancer and IQ loss, and antidepressants linked to school shootings, has sharply criticized the agency now under his control.
The sweeping reductions come as the FDA was already struggling with massive shortages in inspectors and regulators in an industry that has seen widespread outbreaks in just the last few months of salmonella, listeria and E. coli.
All of this may mean that consumers will need to take more of a role in protecting their own safety from foodborne illnesses. Federal health officials estimate that nearly 48 million people are sickened by food contaminated with harmful germs each year. Here are some steps you can take to avoid it.
Trying to eat healthy? FDA has a couple of changes to make it easier. What to know
The FDA recommends four easy steps to prevent the spread of most foodborne contagion:
Clean: Wash hands and surfaces often, especially after handling uncooked eggs, raw meat, poultry or fish and their juices
Separate: Don't cross-contaminate, keep raw meat and poultry separate from cooked foods or other foods that will not be cooked later in the process.
Cook: Always cook your food to a safe minimum internal temperature, which you should measure with a food thermometer. This will ensure any harmful bacteria in your food has been killed before you eat it.
Chill: Keep perishable foods at a safe temperature: below 40 degrees. Follow the two-hour rule and do not leave perishable foods at room temperature for more than two hours (or one hour if the food is sitting in temperatures above 90 degrees). Plan to use or freeze leftovers within four days of when you first cooked them. When you do eat leftovers, reheat them to 165 degrees.
Food processing is monitored at local, state and federal levels, but sometimes things get through, especially with produce and raw meat. Produce can be contaminated by animals, harmful substances in the soil or water, poor worker hygiene and problems with distribution, storage and food preparation.
Choose produce that isn't bruised or damaged and keep pre-cut items refrigerated, cut away any damage or bruising that occurs after you buy it
Wash your hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap before and after preparing fresh produce
Thoroughly rinse fruits and vegetables under running water before eating or preparing them, especially if they won't be cooked. Gently rub produce under the water — soap or a produce wash are not necessary — and use a clean vegetable brush to scrub firm produce, such as melons and cucumbers
Dry produce with a clean cloth or paper towel to further reduce bacteria that may be present
Remove the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage
Store perishable produce in the refrigerator at or below 40 degrees
Avoid eating raw sprouts such as alfalfa, clover, radish, and mung bean
Drink only pasteurized or shelf-stable fruit and vegetable juices
Separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from ready-to-eat foods in your grocery shopping cart, refrigerator, and while preparing and handling foods at home and consider placing them inside plastic bags in your grocery shopping cart to keep the juices contained
To prevent juices from raw meat, poultry, or seafood from dripping onto other foods in the refrigerator, place these raw foods in sealed containers or sealable plastic bags
Wash hands thoroughly with warm water and soap before and after handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
If possible, use one cutting board for raw meat, poultry, and seafood and another one for fresh fruits and vegetables. If two cutting boards aren't available, prepare fruits and vegetables first, put them safely out of the way and wash the cutting board thoroughly with soap and hot water. Then prepare the raw meat, poultry, or seafood, and wash the cutting board again. Replace cutting boards when they get old or develop hard-to-clean grooves
Wash dishes, utensils (including knives) and countertops with soap and hot water after they come in contact with raw meat, poultry or seafood
Never taste uncooked marinade or sauce that was used to marinate raw meat, poultry, or seafood, and don't reuse it on cooked foods unless you boil it first
Don't use the same plates for serving cooked food that you used to prepare raw meat, poultry, or seafood
Cook your food to safe minimum internal temperatures such as 145 degrees for beef, pork and seafood, 165 degrees for chicken, etc. has a chart of common foods and their safe cooking temps.
If you have a weakened immune system, avoid hot dogs and deli meats unless they are reheated to 165 degrees or streaming hot.
Also avoid unpasteurized milk (so-called "raw milk") or milk products, as they may have been contaminated with high levels of bacteria from the animals that produced them, their waste or their environment. The pasteurization process kills pathogens that cause disease. Cook eggs thoroughly.
Floridians love their seafood. But they can be a powerful vector for foodborne illnesses.
Only buy fish that is refrigerated or displayed on a thick bed of ice, ideally in a case or under a cover
Fish should smell fresh and mild, not fishy, sour, or ammonia-like
A fish's eyes should be clear and shiny, and fish should have firm flesh that springs back when pressed and red gills (if whole) or red bloodlines with no discoloration or drying around the edges (if filleted)
Shrimp, scallops, and lobster flesh should be clear with a pearl-like color and little or no odor
Look for tags or labels on packages of shucked shellfish for certification numbers
Tap clams, oysters and mussels to see if they close and don't buy them if they don't. Throw out any with cracked or broken shells
Watch for leg movement on crabs and lobsters to make sure they're alive, as they spoil quickly after death
Don't buy frozen seafood if the package is open, torn or crushed and avoid packages with signs of frost or ice crystals. Frozen fish should be hard, and not bendable
To keep all meats, poultry and food in general safe, your refrigerator should be kept at 40 degrees and your freezer at 0 degrees. Place a refrigerator thermometer in the refrigerator and check the temperature periodically.
The FDA has more tips on storing food safely here.
Reuters contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: FDA suspending food safety quality checks. Here's how to protect yourself
