STAT+: FDA's former top food official says Trump firings are 'dismantling' the division

WASHINGTON — The former head of the Food and Drug Administration’s food division said Tuesday that he resigned this week because cuts made by the Trump administration imperil the agenda set forth by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I, personally, and the organization were very excited about the agenda that Secretary Kennedy has articulated for foods, in particular around nutrition and food chemical safety,” Jim Jones, who until Monday was the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, told STAT in an interview. “But so far, all of the actions we’re seeing from this administration — not just the rhetoric, which is very … dismissive would be the nicest thing to say about what they’ve said about federal employees — but also their actions.

“So they’ve fired 89 people” in the food division, said Jones, whose resignation was first reported by the food industry website Food Fix. “Many of them were going to be doing chemical safety work. Some were doing nutrition work.” The administration, he said, is talking about further reductions in staff at the FDA. Efforts on the issues that RFK Jr. has said were among the most important to him, nutrition and chemical safety, were “decimated,” Jones said.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…