What slashing federal agency budgets could mean for food safety?

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

The Trump administration has fired more than 10,000 employees across the federal workforce

from the Federal Aviation Administration to the National Institutes of Health.

It's also cut agency budgets.

And some of these cuts have experts worried

about what the layoffs and firings will mean for the nation's food safety. This week, the head of

the Food and Drug Administration's Food Safety Division resigned, saying, according to multiple

reports, that the cuts will damage the FDA's ability to safeguard our food supply. Marketplaces,

Kimberly Adams, has more. We still don't know the full extent of the layoffs at the FDA's ability to safeguard our food supply. Marketplaces, Kimberly Adams has more.

We still don't know the full extent of the layoffs at the FDA, which oversees the safety

of most of our food supply. But Darren Detweiler, a food safety expert and consultant teaching

at Northeastern University, says they are widespread. These are technical experts, nutrition experts.

Their jobs are extremely important in terms of outbreak response and disease investigation.

Frontline food inspectors and investigators have been laid off or fired, some because they were newer employees on probation.

This is going to result in slower recalls, weaker enforcement, and quite honestly,

a rollback of public health protections. The FDA did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

The USDA, which handles some aspects of food safety nationally, said in a statement that the agency

is committed to preserving essential safety positions

and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.

But many experts and former food safety officials are unconvinced.

I worry about if there is reduced oversight that there will be an increase in foodborne outbreaks.

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