Fewer Inspectors, More Outbreaks
In a system that was already strained, who’s left to inspect our food?
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted his position as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2025, he had already been a staunch advocate for the raw milk industry, which backed his nomination.
Much to the chagrin of raw milk advocates, as of mid-2025, Kennedy has not acted to loosen the FDA’s ban on interstate raw milk sales, in place since 1987. Consuming raw, unpasteurized milk can be deadly — raw milk drinkers are an estimated 800 times more likely to get a food-borne infection than pasteurized-milk drinkers.
While the rhetoric remained sympathetic and nothing changed on paper, a raw-dairy E. coli O157:H7 outbreak sickened nine people between September 2025 and February 2026, most of them children under 5, including one case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (kidney failure). Raw Farm, LLC, the raw milk producer, initially refused a voluntary recall request and only agreed under pressure from the FDA.
Kennedy didn’t have to deregulate raw milk. The agency built to protect consumers simply got smaller and poorer under the Trump administration.
A Rhetoric of Protection
The administration’s health agenda runs on a rhetoric of protection — it promises to shield Americans from toxins, processed foods, and chemical additives in a food supply Kennedy calls “poisoned.” The contradiction? That rhetoric covers for federal agencies that are shrinking on his watch, the same agencies whose job is to stop contamination before it reaches the kitchen table. That leaves the public exposed to the exact hazards Kennedy says he’s fighting.
A Diminished Workforce: What Shrank
Food safety takes people to do the work. HHS cut 20,000 jobs in March 2025, and the department went from ~82,000 to ~62,000 employees. The FDA alone lost 3,500.
CDC’s FoodNet surveillance system, which tracks food-borne illness across 16% of the population, had its pathogen tracking cut from eight pathogens to two (salmonella and E. coli). The cuts also eliminated the training fellowship for the next generation of food-safety investigators. FDA food-inspector positions were already at 80% capacity (470 of 589 budgeted slots) before the cuts. Infant-formula inspection, the program developed after the 2022 formula crisis, is down to 50% capacity.
Support staff handling travel coordination (visa paperwork, scheduling) shrank by 65%, and while that doesn’t stop inspections, it slows them to a crawl. The cuts even reached employee business accounts — one inspector’s travel card spending limit was reduced to $1 while awaiting approval.
Kennedy later admitted some cuts went too far and said HHS would reinstate about 20% of the reduced workforce. Yet, foreign food-facility inspections still fell to their lowest level since 2011 (excluding pandemic years).
The End Result
What makes the 2025 cuts so damaging is that the system was already strained, and its capacity to respond kept shrinking while the problem kept growing. Food safety experts admit FDA’s food program has been under-resourced for decades:
Outbreak illnesses rose 25 percent, from 1,118 to 1,392. Hospitalizations more than doubled, from 230 to 487. Deaths more than doubled too, from 8 to 19. Recalls tied to Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli rose 41 percent, including the Boar’s Head Listeria outbreak, which caused 61 illnesses, 60 hospitalizations, and 10 deaths.
After the HHS cuts, a Listeria outbreak tied to Nate’s Fine Foods prepared pasta killed seven people and hospitalized 27 across nineteen states. It took eight months to contain, June 2025 to February 2026, a long stretch for a surveillance system that just lost most of its pathogen coverage. Outbreaks like this need to close faster. The question is how.
A Ban That Never Existed
In April 2025, Kennedy announced the phase-out of eight synthetic food dyes, including Red 40 and Yellow 5, from the American food supply. The news media called it a ban. It wasn’t — the FDA formally revoked authorization for only two dyes, Citrus Red 2 and Orange B, neither still in common use. The other six rest on a voluntary understanding with industry, not a rule. Kennedy said, “We don’t have an agreement; we have an understanding.”
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary defended skipping regulation entirely. “There’s no need to have a regulation or a statute when companies are volunteering to do it.” The proposed date for the full phase-out is the end of 2026, and nothing requires any company to meet it. It’s ‘regulation’ balanced on the honor system of an agency that just lost thousands of the people who used to make sure food was safe.
Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) promised to close the GRAS loophole. For decades, food companies added new ingredients to the food supply by declaring them “Generally Recognized As Safe” on their own authority, with no FDA review and no public disclosure required.
In 2026, the FDA proposed a compromise — companies must notify the agency when they use a self-affirmed GRAS ingredient. What the rule doesn’t require is FDA sign-off before that ingredient reaches a shelf; companies can sell first and notify later. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) insisted the problem still existed, yet there’s still no requirement to get the FDA’s approval before going to market.
The Raw Farm outbreak didn’t require Kennedy to deregulate anything. It required an agency short on inspectors, lab capacity, and a surveillance system that used to track more than two pathogens. A parent whose child ends up on dialysis after consuming raw dairy doesn’t care whether the failure was a policy choice or a staffing shortfall. They care that someone was supposed to be watching, and wasn’t. Kennedy can call the American food supply poisoned as many times as he likes. The harder question is simpler than any of his rhetoric: who’s left at the agency to catch it before it reaches the table?
References
1. Food Safety News. “RFK Jr. Isn’t Making Raw Milk Advocates Happy.” June 2025. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/06/rfk-jr-isnt-making-raw-milk-advocates-happy/
2. CDC. “Investigation Update: E. Coli O157:H7 Outbreak Linked to Raw Cheddar Cheese (Raw Farm, LLC).” March–April 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreaks/rawcheese-03-26/investigation.html
3. CDC. “Investigation Update: Listeria Outbreak Linked to Prepared Pasta Meals.” February 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/chicken-fettuccine-alfredo-06-25/investigation.html
4. NPR. “HHS Loses 20,000 Jobs Amid Restructure.” March 27, 2025. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5342414/hhs-doge-rif-rfk-job-cuts
5. STAT. “American Food Safety Could Be Headed for a Breakdown.” December 22, 2025. https://www.statnews.com/2025/12/22/american-food-safety-funding-cuts-foodnet/
6. NPR. “Cuts to Support Staff Hamstring FDA Inspectors.” April 18, 2025. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5364544/fda-inspections-layoffs-food-and-drug-supply-less-safe
7. CIDRAP. “Report: Illnesses From Contaminated Food Increased in 2024, Severe Cases Doubled.” 2025. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/foodborne-disease/report-illnesses-contaminated-food-increased-2024-severe-cases-doubled
8. ABC News. “RFK Jr. Unveils Plan to Phase Out 8 Artificial Food Dyes.” 2025. https://abcnews.com/US/rfk-jr-plans-phase-artificial-food-dyes-us/story?id=121034287
9. CSPI. “RFK Jr. Leaves GRAS Loophole Ajar.” 2026. https://www.cspi.org/statement/rfk-jr-leaves-gras-loophole-ajar
10. NBC News. “RFK Jr. Proposes Fix to Loophole That Allows Additives Into Food.” 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/rfk-jr-proposes-fix-loophole-gras-ingredients-rcna591400
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