Tough to swallow: The Trump administration's approach to food safety gets even worse

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The Trump administration’s approach to food safety was already controversial. It continues to get worse.

The good news is that the Trump administration's policies on food safety only matter to those who eat food.

For everyone else, however, there’s cause for concern. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-27T19:06:30.583Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-foodnet-food-safety-regulations-cdc-rcna227529

Years later, there’s another Republican administration with some risky ideas about food safety — and by any fair measure, it appears “E. coli conservatism” has mutated into something even worse. NBC News reported:

A federal-state partnership that monitors for foodborne illnesses quietly scaled back its operations nearly two months ago. As of July 1, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) program has reduced surveillance to just two pathogens: salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told NBC News.

According to the reporting, the FoodNet program was tracking infections caused by six additional pathogens, some of which can lead to severe or life-threatening illnesses, up until last month. But as NBC News’ report added, monitoring for the six pathogens “is no longer required for the 10 states that participate in the program.”....

Complicating matters further is the familiarity of the circumstances.

In April, for example, Reuters reported that the Food and Drug Administration was suspending a quality control program for testing dairy products “due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division.”

A week earlier, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was “suspending a quality control program for its food testing laboratories as a result of staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services.”

That news came two weeks after The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced “wide-ranging cutbacks at federal health agencies,” including “scientists who tested food and drugs for contaminants or deadly bacteria.”

That news came two weeks after the Times reported that the FDA delayed — by nearly three years — implementation of a requirement that food companies and grocers “rapidly trace contaminated food through the supply chain and pull it off the shelves.”.....

The good news is that the Trump administration’s controversial approach to food safety only matters to Americans who eat food. For everyone else, however, there’s cause for some concern.

[markodochartaigh]

1. Call dairies and dairy product companies.

Tell them that you have heard that the current administration is cutting back on food safety programs so you will not be buying any dairy products for you or your family.

Since we gave up our status as citizens to become consumers we have less and less power. But one power we do retain is the power of our dollars. And corporations will often bow to that power.

Probably no point in mentioning our massive tax subsidies for the dairy industry.

[UTUSN]

2. Just "food safety" linked to KRASNOV sez what/joke?!

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R