By Lucas Ropek
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed he wants to “Make America Healthy Again,” but pretty much everything he’s done since taking over as head of the Department of Health and Human Services seems destined to make Americans sicker and less healthy.
Reuters reports that, under Kennedy, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it will suspend a quality control program that tests milk and other dairy products. The outlet cites emails from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety to report that the shuttered program, which involves proficiency testing for grade “A” raw milk and other dairy products, will no longer operate. Proficiency testing ensures that America’s network of food safety labs operates consistently with federal standards. Milk products have (historically) needed to comply with federal requirements to be considered Grade “A.”
The suspension of the program comes as workforce cuts batter the agency’s food safety and nutrition division, Reuters notes. The FDA’s Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, which is responsible for overseeing the testing in question, “is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis,” an email viewed by the news outlet reads.
The cuts come as other critical food testing is also being suspended. Last week, it was reported that the FDA was gutting its food safety testing operations. The agency said it would end virtually all routine food safety inspections, which are designed to ensure that the food that Americans eat is free from harmful pesticides and other contaminants.
Gizmodo reached out to the FDA for more information and will update this story if it responds.
The HHS, which is the parent agency of the FDA, has been hit by massive layoffs in recent months, thanks to the Trump administration’s mandate to shrink the federal government and thus make it “more efficient.” Kennedy has seemed more than willing to oblige. As America’s health agency has awkwardly downsized itself and shed thousands of workers, Kennedy has preoccupied himself with a bizarre autism study (which he claims will prove autism’s cause by the fall) and the reintroduction of tallow to French fries.
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