The FDA Just Suspended Routine Food Safety Checks

With food recalls dominating headlines over the past year, it’s easy to feel like food safety in the U.S. isn’t as great as it should be. So, it’s fair to be even more confused when you hear that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is suspending a particular food safety program.

The FDA’s quality control program for its food testing laboratories is being put on ice, due to staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to Reuters. The proficiency testing program of the FDA's Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) works to make sure that there’s consistency across FDA labs that test food for things like pathogens and contaminants, with the goal of preventing foodborne illness. 

About one in six Americans gets sick from foodborne illnesses each year, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne illnesses in the country annually. 

So, why would the FDA suspend a program that’s designed to keep the food supply chain safer? While food safety experts say this doesn’t pose an immediate threat to the safety of the food that lands on your plate, they also say that this can cause issues down the road. Here’s why. 

What is being suspended in the FDA?

The proficiency testing program of the FDA's Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) oversees about 170 labs that check food for things that could make you sick. The program will reportedly be suspended through September 30 and, as a result, FERN won’t be able to do quality control work around lab testing for things like the parasite Cyclospora in spinach or the pesticide glyphosate in barley, according to an internal email viewed by Reuters.

What does this FDA program do?

Food safety labs use these tests to meet standards for accreditation. It’s not clear if there are other alternatives in place. “Proficiency testing is a vital quality assurance measure designed to ensure that labs within the FERN network—federal, state, and local—can accurately detect dangerous contaminants in food, from E. coli to chemical residues and even radiological threats,” explains Darin Detwiler, author of the book Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and a professor at Northeastern University. “These routine exercises function like fire drills for laboratories: Standardized, periodic tests that ensure consistent performance across the network.”

FERN was established in 2003 as part of a national effort to strengthen rapid-response capacity across the food system, Detwiler says. “FERN plays a central role in detecting both unintentional foodborne illness outbreaks and intentional contamination events,” he confirms. “Its responsibilities include harmonizing lab methods, providing surge testing during public health crises, and delivering scientific data that supports recalls and regulatory action.” Detwiler also said that FERN acted as a backbone of sorts for the government’s ability to detect and respond to threats in the food supply.

Testing from FERN labs has detected staphylococcal enterotoxin in breaded chicken, listeria in ice cream, and salmonella in peanut butter, among other things.

What does this mean for food safety?

The FDA’s suspension of this program doesn’t stop food testing or outbreak response, Detwiler explains. “But it does mean labs won’t be participating in their regular drills for several months,” he says. 

Why does this matter? “Proficiency testing helps ensure that any testing lab is able to do its job and that you can trust the results,” says Donald W. Schaffner, PhD, department chair and extension specialist in Food Science at the Rutgers University Department of Food Science. “This means a better chance of finding something when it's there and not finding something when it's not there.” Essentially,  the quality of the data coming out of the program will potentially be reduced. 

Schaffner says that the change is “part of a series of changes chipping away at the food safety infrastructure of this country.” 

In the short-term, Detwiler says this is unlikely to make a huge impact. But if the suspensions continue, it could be problematic for food safety. “Without regular proficiency testing, the risk isn’t that outbreaks go unnoticed overnight, but that lab readiness erodes quietly, consistency falters, and crucial seconds are lost when the next emergency strikes,” he says. “Think of it like grounding flight simulators for pilots: The planes still fly, but the margin for error narrows over time…for a system that depends on speed and accuracy, even a brief lapse in validation could matter when stakes are high.”

Schaffner agrees that this will likely have an impact on food safety at some point. “The gradual erosion of food safety capabilities in this country is not a good thing,” he says. “Without these dedicated government scientists and programs, we will not be able to react to problems as quickly or potentially even discover or solve problems where the answer is uncertain.”

What you can do to make sure your food is safe

Detwiler points out that food testing and surveillance are still happening. But the standardized testing to make sure there is consistency across labs is not. “Suspending these standardized tests, even temporarily, chips away at a network that’s built to prevent small problems from becoming national crises,” he says. 

On a personal level, Detwiler says there are a few things you can do to make sure the food you eat is as safe as possible. 

• Buy food from reputable retailers and producers with strong safety records.
• Wash your produce well, even if it’s pre-washed.
• Cook meats, eggs, and seafood to safe internal temperatures.
• Try to avoid high-risk raw foods, like unpasteurized milk or juices.
• Keep an eye out for FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recall alerts, and get rid of any impacted products.

Schaffner also suggests joining a shoppers club at your go-to grocery store chains. “This may enable the chain to contact you in the event that something you purchased is part of an outbreak or a recall,” he says. 

 “For consumers, the takeaway is this: Stay alert and stay engaged,” Detwiler says. “And remember that advocating for food safety isn’t just about what you eat…it’s about the systems we rely on to ensure what we eat is safe.”

Detwiler calls the program’s suspension the “warning light on the dashboard of our national food safety system.” He adds that “ensuring that this network remains strong, funded, and operational should be treated not as an optional upgrade, but as a core function of public health protection.”