The pinnacle of the meals division on the US Meals and Drug Administration has stop in protest over sweeping employees cuts that he warns will hamper the company’s potential to guard public well being.
Jim Jones, who joined the company in September 2023, cited “indiscriminate” layoffs to 89 employees members, together with key technical specialists. In his resignation letter to the appearing FDA commissioner, Sara Brenner, seen by Bloomberg Information, Jones mentioned the cuts would make it “fruitless” to proceed in his position given the Trump administration’s “disdain for the very individuals” wanted to implement meals security reforms.
“I used to be wanting ahead to working to pursue the division’s agenda of bettering the well being of Individuals by decreasing diet-related power illness and dangers from chemical substances in meals,” Jones wrote.
Information of the resignation was first reported by FoodFix.
A few of these latest efforts embrace the January banning of controversial meals dye Purple No 3, a vibrant crimson coloration additive that was discovered to trigger most cancers in male lab rats.
Specialists in vitamin, toddler method and food-safety response, together with 10 employees members liable for reviewing doubtlessly unsafe meals elements, had been targets of layoffs, in accordance with the letter.
The FDA didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The White Home defended the employees modifications, with the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, telling Bloomberg some “bureaucrats” had been proof against implementing the president’s agenda.
“President [Donald] Trump is barely excited about the perfect and most certified people who find themselves additionally keen to implement his America First Agenda on behalf of the American individuals,” Leavitt mentioned in an e-mail. “It’s not for everybody, and that’s okay.”
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