Who regulates our food and why is it important?

Food safety is a crucial public health issue, overseen by multiple government agencies. The Food and Drug Administration ensures all food and pharmaceuticals are safe for US consumers, overseeing 80% of our food supply. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention tracks foodborne illnesses, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture monitors production, focusing on animal products. Despite this, contamination resulting in illness can still occur.

A 2019 report by the CDC found that 9.9 million foodborne illnesses were caused by just seven pathogens. The most common form of illness is norovirus. While this may seem minor, foodborne illness is still uncomfortable for the healthiest people and it can be dangerous to the young, elderly, or people whose health is otherwise compromised. Every year foodborne illness is responsible for tens of thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths.

Right now, along with many other government agencies, the current president has cut staff at the FDA. Since the FDA oversees the vast majority of food production, cutting staff makes it harder for them to ensure food processing facilities are clean and safe. The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC and FDA, has lost twenty thousand employees as of this May. This led to the suspension of programs overseeing milk, greens, and testing on aged cheese and bird flu. The USDA also cut two food safety advisory committees.

One of the most important things the FDA does is continual research on food related diseases. In 2024, foodborne illness and related hospitalizations and deaths doubled from the year before. Food & Wine reports that Florida, California, and Michigan are the three most at-risk states. Importantly, the reasons these states struggle with food safety are all unique.

An E. coli outbreak in November of 2024 spread across 15 states but was not publicized by the FDA. A nine year old boy almost died as a result of it. In a potentially fatal complication that can be caused by E. coli, his kidneys failed. Colton George was hospitalized for two weeks, hardly able to eat or drink and undergoing constant dialysis.