US FDA suspends food safety quality checks after staff cuts [View all]

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Source: Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for its food testing laboratories as a result of staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, 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 food-borne illness.

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"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.

The program will be suspended at least through September 30 and means the agency will be unable to do planned quality control work around lab testing for the parasite Cyclospora in spinach or the pesticide glyphosate in barley, among other tests, the email says.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-fda-suspends-food-safety-quality-checks-after-staff-cuts-2025-04-17/