The FDA food safety head is giving up

Jim Jones, director of the food and medicine department, resigned on Monday, citing what he called “uncritical” dismissals that would make it “fruitless”.

In a letter to resignation, Jones estimated that 89 people from 2000 in his division were released over the weekend, many of which hired many freshly to perform more in -depth work on chemical safety in order to protect the food supply of the nation.

“I was looking forward to working on the implementation of the American Health improvement department by reducing chronic diseases and risks associated with chemicals,” wrote Jones in a letter submitted Sara Brenner, acting as commissioner of the commissioner of the commissioner of the FDA

But “the contempt of Trump’s administration for the people themselves,” who would do this job, gave him no other choice but to leave, he said.

Mr. Jones also distinguished Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly appointed secretary of the Health and Social Welfare Department, for criticism of the FDA as too observed by the industries that he supervises and swear to reject the agency’s nutritional staff.

“Comments of the secretary attributing the integrity of food staff, claiming that they are corrupt based on falsehood, are harm to everyone,” Jones wrote in a letter.

His resignation was first reported in Food correction Bulletin that informs about messages in the food industry. Mr. Jones and FDA did not immediately respond to messages looking for a comment.

The food department regulates some additives, such as artificial dyes and dyes. It also plays a role in studying the explosion of diseases transmitted by food. The FDA also finances and participates in the Inspection of Food Processing and Formula Formulas in the USA and abroad.

Food department employees were among the about 700 people dismissed from the FDA over the weekend. People who were released e -mail said that their superiors were not aware of the cuts and had nothing to say about them.

In his letter to resignation, Mr. Jones described employees who were released as a fresh education and experience in work related to food safety who “would represent the future of the agency.”

Among the employees were people with specialist skills in the safety of infant formula and food safety response.

At the beginning of 2022, the Division was subject to fiery criticism after a scandal with the formula of infants, which began after some children contracted infections from deadly bacteria, which were also discovered in a ruined plant in Michigan. The plant has been closed for some time, causing a mass shortage of infant formula.

Mr. Jones, whose experience concerns chemical regulations in the Environmental Protection Agency, was brought to the agency in 2023 as a reformer.

During his term at FDA, Mr. Jones reorganized the food department, improving the structure to reduce barriers between people who check food facilities and scientific safety staff. He also created a food safety office and has become equal to an office that refers to bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria or E. coli, said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government in the working group Environmental, Non -profit organization, concentrating reduction of exposure chemical.

“Our food will be less unthreatening,” said Faber. “This is a home. There are few experienced leaders like Jim Jones. And we will have fewer employees who will have to learn everything he learned because he inherited this job. “

Federal food safety actions in recent months have been behind the actions in the States, and California has defeated FDA to introduce key changes in the field of food safety. California Requirement required weighty metal levels in infant food and underwent a breakthrough ban on food additives, including red dye 3 in 2023.

FDA took place with a similar ban just a few weeks ago.