A slew of food recalls this summer have left a bad taste in Americans’ mouths, and public health professionals warn cuts to key food safety personnel means more food-related illness could be on its way.
In July, Taylor Farms de Mexico recalled all iceberg lettuce sourced in Mexico from 27 states following a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened 18,445 people since the beginning of May. That’s on top of Taylor Farms recalling fresh jalapenos in 26 states over salmonella concerns. A Food and Drug Administration report in July revealed Dairy Queen locations in five states pulled 74 cases of ice cream after metal shavings were found in the product. Don’t forget the more than 75,000 packages of tofu recalled for possibly containing ink.
The seeming surge of food-related recalls has coincided with massive cuts conducted by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last year, including across the FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. government has for decades grappled with staffing challenges and limited resources around food safety. But following the DOGE cuts, the jobs of these critical agencies to prevent the spread of food-related illnesses will just get harder, according to experts.
