A top Food and Drug Administration official has quit over layoffs in the food division, warning the agency's ability to protect public health will be affected.
Jim Jones oversaw the agency's banning of food dye Red No. 3 earlier this year, an additive found to cause cancer in male lab rats. Jones quit his job as the Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods in a letter - saying he was looking forward to pursuing the department's agenda of reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food.
Jones says ten of the 89 staffers laid off were responsible for reviewing potentially unsafe food ingredients and others were specialists in infant formula. Jones calls the layoffs "indiscriminate."
The White House press secretary defended the cuts saying some bureaucrats are resistant to implementing the President's agenda.
In his letter, Jones says the staff cuts would make it "fruitless" to continue in his role because of the Trump Administration's "disdain for the very people" needed to make the changes the White House wants.
It's all part of the Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce which reached the FDA over the weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.
Probationary employees across the FDA received notices Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The total number of positions eliminated was not clear Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products — which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.
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The FDA is headquartered in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington and employs nearly 20,000 people. It’s long been a target of newly sworn-in health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who last year accused the agency of waging a “war on public health” for not approving unproven treatments such as psychedelics, stem cells and chelation therapy.
Kennedy also has called for eliminating thousands of chemicals and colorings from U.S. foods. But the cuts at FDA include staffers responsible for reviewing the safety of new food additives and ingredients, according to an FDA staffer familiar with the firings.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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