FDA stalls in posting food safety warning letters amid staff cuts

The FDA has not published more than a dozen letters that flagged hazards at food companies, including potential contamination, two sources said.

A seafood company failed to follow federal safety rules to prevent potential botulism contamination. A business was hawking dietary supplements with the misleading claim that they’d cure, treat or prevent disease. A fresh sprouts producer didn’t take adequate precautions against contamination.   

The Food and Drug Administration laid out these inspection findings in warning letters, accusing the companies of committing “significant violations” of federal laws, according to an FDA staff member who described the letters to NBC News.  

But the public doesn’t know about any of this, after the federal workers responsible for reviewing the food safety letters before they’re posted online were fired, the current FDA staff member and a former FDA employee told NBC News.  

That review process ground to a halt after the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal health workers in early April, which gutted the teams responsible for reviewing public records and redacting any confidential information, according to the current and former FDA employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to share internal details. 

Since then, the publication of more than a dozen food safety warning letters has been stalled, they said.