US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts

www.reuters.com

reuters.com

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

The suspension is another disruption to the nation's food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of Donald Trump's effort to shrink the federal workforce.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

10 comments

And Trumps mad Canada doesn’t buy more of your dairy and meat products.
No testing on dairy. Bleached chicken.
Fuck Trumps America 🖕
- No testing on dairy. Bleached chicken.
  Don’t forget the antibiotics in antibiotic free beef!
- Just because I like getting pedantic: washing food in a dilute chlorine solution is harmless and is done basically everywhere.
  Some countries ban the import of animal products treated in that way because they're concerned it could lead to less sanitary practices before the wash.
  The US has almost entirely stopped using chlorine and instead uses something closer to a dilute vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. The EU bans washing animal products with anything except for water.
  They allow washing plant products with chlorine.
  The EU and US have comparable levels of outbreaks of the diseases that are being attempted to control, so it's unclear if one strategy is better.
  Demanding that another country/region change their food safety regulations is ridiculous, but it's good to remember that it's not an argument over a specific chemical or food safety, but over a difference in regulation that could hypothetically be masking a production issue.

"The defect in this one is... H5N1"
...
"Yussssss!"

Amazing how Democrats can never get anything done for working people while Republicans can and do fuck working people every chance they get.
- Things are easy when you break the law to get them done, and you have enough fellow saboteurs in government to prevent anyone holding you accountable.