The Trump Food Safety Crisis

When it comes to the nation's food supply, Trump is neglecting the safety of all Americans to cater to the wealthy few.

Maybe skip the cucumber salad at this year's Memorial Day cookout.

A still-widening salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers from two Florida-based growers has already sickened people in 15 states.

Also, you might want to check where those tomatoes came from.

If you're worried about listeria, avoid the ready-to-eat sandwiches and snacks. And the smoked sausages, too.

Those with severe soy allergies should watch out for the canned beans.

By now, I hope you've thrown out all the bread products that came with glass baked into the crust.

And the bratwurst that was filled with hard plastic.

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Maybe Trump shouldn't have fired all those food safety inspectors

Things were bad enough the first time Trump was President.

But as Trump 2.0 lets America's food safety standards collapse completely, you might soon be longing for the days when all Trump made you do was eat a little shit with your pork.

As Politico reported earlier this month, "555 employees at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the agency that handles meat inspections and helps respond to the bird flu outbreak" were among the 15,000 USDA employees who accepted Trump's offer to resign from the agency.

Those buyouts means that America's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has lost 15% of its staff this year.

Food safety is "not a priority" for Trump

In March, when the Trump administration eliminated the USDA’s National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI), Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said:

The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at USDA in the foreseeable future.

Also in March, reports Reuters, Trump delivered "a victory for meat companies and industry associations" when deciding to "permanently allow U.S. poultry and pork processing plants to operate more quickly."

Less safety for humans, more "intense, unnecessary suffering" for animals

Faster speeds at slaughterhouses may delight Trump's greedy food industry donors but, as Reuters reports, they create new "health concerns about slaughterhouse workers, who often perform repetitive tasks with sharp knives and toil in extreme heat or cold."

As Compassion in World Farming puts it, "faster slaughter lines will likely lead to increased animal suffering, more worker injuries, and greater risks to food safety."

For chickens, turkeys and pigs, this means:

Intense, unnecessary suffering. When slaughter lines move too quickly, proper stunning procedures become harder to implement consistently. As a result, animals experience unimaginable pain and terror in their final moments—a clear ethical failure.

According to CIWF, faster speeds also compromise food safety due to:

Rushed inspections: USDA inspectors have less time to examine carcasses to ensure they are safe for human consumption, meaning they are free of abscesses and contamination by foreign objects such as needles, bullets, and broken machinery

Inadequate sanitation: Workers struggle to properly clean equipment between processing steps

Increased pathogen risk: Cross-contamination becomes more likely, allowing harmful bacteria to enter the food supply

How much worse could it get?

Trump just canceled the Biden plan to reduce contamination in chicken

Please tell me which of these Presidents is demented.

In 2024, Joe Biden "created new safety standards in an effort to prevent the sale of raw chicken and chicken parts contaminated with certain levels or types of Salmonella. It would have also overhauled safety procedures and testing for poultry slaughterhouses to prevent Salmonella contamination."

In 2025, Donald Trump withdrew the plan, "arguing the new rule would have imposed 'significant financial and operational burdens on American businesses and consumers.'

As NBC News notes:

Salmonella bacteria is a leading cause of foodborne illness and causes about 1.35 million infections in the U.S. every year, most commonly through contaminated food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump canceled the plan to not sell contaminated chicken after being lobbied by The Meat Institute which defines "efficiency" as not having to waste money keeping Salmonella out of the products it sells.

Big corporations get fatter as Americans get sicker

When it comes to the nation's food supply, Trump is neglecting the safety of all Americans to cater to the wealthy few. He's bowing to corporations that would prefer fewer government inspections or, even better, the ability to be in charge of inspecting themselves.

With Memorial Day signaling the (unofficial) start of summer in America, Trump's cutbacks, deregulation and reduced food safety enforcement have already made this weekend's barbecues more risky.

Warmer temperatures and an increase in outdoor dining will only add to the food safety concerns.

In the months ahead, as the Trump food safety crisis deepens, expect millions to be sickened and many Americans to die.

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From 2020:

Filthy Pigs

The Trump Administration’s corruption is making our food less safe

UnprecedentedRichard Hine