Trump food safety cuts face scrutiny as cyclospora cases top 11,000

Trump food safety cuts are under new scrutiny as a cyclospora outbreak has sickened more than 11,000 people across 41 states since May, according to CBS News and federal health information cited in its report.

The FDA believes the season’s largest outbreak, affecting nine states so far, was linked to contaminated iceberg lettuce from Mexico that was shipped nationwide by Taylor Farms, CBS News reported. The company supplies groceries and restaurants, and CBS News did not report a response from Taylor Farms.

Susan Mayne, an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health who led the FDA’s food safety operation from 2015 to 2023, told CBS News the outbreak was record-setting and unlike anything she had seen.

What is cyclospora and how does it get on lettuce?

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that causes cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness that can bring severe diarrhea lasting for weeks, according to the CDC information cited by CBS News. Mayne said the parasite comes from human feces and could reach produce through problems such as inadequate bathrooms, poor hand-washing access or contaminated water.

Fruits and vegetables account for almost half of food-borne illnesses, CBS News reported, partly because they are often eaten raw. Outbreaks can also hit farms, suppliers and restaurants financially, as happened after a 2006 spinach contamination led the FDA to warn consumers not to eat spinach.

That crisis helped spur the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, known as LGMA, a voluntary produce industry program with rules that its chief executive, Tim York, said are tougher than government standards. Once growers join, York told CBS News, they must follow the program’s requirements.

Jack Vessey, a fourth-generation produce farmer in Southern California, told CBS News that outbreaks damage the industry. His operation follows LGMA rules that include sanitizing irrigation water, testing water at the source and spray point, using hair nets and gloves, disinfecting knives, undergoing state inspections at least three times a year, and using barcodes to trace produce to its field.

York said outbreaks can still happen because leafy greens are grown outdoors and some microbes exist naturally in the environment. He said growers try to control as much of that environment as they can.

What federal food safety programs were cut?

Mayne told CBS News that food safety budgets have been short of resources for decades. During President Trump’s second term, CBS News reported, the FDA has lost about 20% of its staff and the CDC is down 25%.

Mayne said the CDC once had 11 scientists tracking food parasites and now has three. She also said a national advisory committee that advised the FDA and USDA on preventing microbial contamination in food was disbanded, and that a team that met with Mexican counterparts on food safety was let go.

FoodNet, a surveillance partnership among the CDC, FDA and USDA, previously tracked eight major microbes, CBS News reported. It now tracks two, and cyclospora is not among them.

A food traceability rule passed as part of a 2011 law would have required detailed supply-chain records for vulnerable ingredients from field to store, but the FDA has delayed compliance until 2028. Mayne said that kind of recordkeeping would have been helpful in lettuce tracebacks.

Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that criticism of the administration’s food safety programs was “invalid,” according to CBS News. He said there had been no cuts to surveillance, while acknowledging FoodNet cuts that he described as redundant surveillance.

Mayne disputed that account, saying there clearly had been cuts. Her advice to consumers for now was to avoid bagged salads because a small amount of contamination can spread more widely through them.

This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.