Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. Following the news feels really heavy right now, especially for those with school-aged children. I hope you are all finding ways to take care of yourself and your loved ones.
New pod: We’ve got a new episode of Forked, the podcast I do every two weeks with Theodore Ross over at the Food & Environment Reporting Network. We discussed the leaked MAHA strategy, the political fallout and more. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!
Food Fix on air: This week, I joined Raising America, a new show hosted by Elizabeth Prann over at The Hill about parenting in America, to talk about MAHA and school lunch policy.
As always, I truly welcome your feedback. Send me your thoughts by replying to this email, or drop me a line: helena@foodfix.co.
Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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Foodborne illness surveillance is being weakened amid chaos at CDC
The CDC has significantly scaled back one of our most important surveillance systems for tracking foodborne illness in the U.S. due to a lack of funding.
This development came to light this week via reporting from Aria Bendix over at NBC News, but the scale back actually quietly happened nearly two months ago:
“As of July 1, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) program has reduced surveillance to just two pathogens: salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)…Before July, the program had been tracking infections caused by six additional pathogens: campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. Some of them can lead to severe or life-threatening illnesses, particularly for newborns and people who are pregnant or have weakened immune systems.”
The report notes: “Monitoring for the six pathogens is no longer required for the 10 states that participate in the program, though those states aren’t precluded from conducting surveillance on their own.”
FoodNet 101: While most people have never heard of this surveillance system, it’s a critical part of the government’s ability to track how well our food safety system is (or isn’t) working. FoodNet is a federal-state collaboration between CDC, USDA, FDA and 10 state health departments. It was actually created in the wake of a deadly E.coli O157:H7 outbreak tied to Jack in the Box hamburgers in 1993. The idea was to give public health leaders a window into the true burden of foodborne illness over time.
It’s one of the most important systems we have because it’s active surveillance, not passive surveillance. That means that officials in the 10 FoodNet states routinely contact clinical labs looking for cases to ensure they are not missed and logged into the system quickly. It’s more comprehensive than other reporting systems we have. This data is also used to extrapolate what’s happening across the rest of the country. In a way, FoodNet acts as a report card for our food safety system — are our policies working? Are we improving or going off the rails? (The story sometimes differs by pathogen, by the way. We’ve done a good job slashing cases of deadly E.coli, for example, but salmonella numbers haven’t budged.)
Bottom line: Every single food safety expert I talked to this week thinks scaling back FoodNet is a very bad idea, a clear step in the wrong direction. It doesn’t matter what party you belong to, whether you are for smaller government or bigger government, foodborne illness surveillance is one of those things most people support.
The better our surveillance is, the quicker health officials can spot problems and intervene before they make more people sick. This type of work saves lives — and also saves the food industry, which loses a lot of money and consumer confidence each time an outbreak happens. It also just plain saves money.
The government’s surveillance system for matching the DNA fingerprints of foodborne illness cases across state and county lines — another wonky piece of the public health puzzle called PulseNet — for example, is estimated to save $70 in medical costs and lost productivity for every $1 of taxpayer money spent to run it.
I recently caught up with Barbara Kowalcyk about all of this. Kowalcyk tragically lost her two-year-old son Kevin to E. coli O157:H7 in 2001, and she has since dedicated her entire career to improving the food safety system. She currently leads the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.
Kowalcyk is deeply concerned about the cuts to FoodNet, but even more the broader weakening of the public health system that we’re seeing right now. State health departments have long been the backbone of disease surveillance, but funding cuts, staff losses and hostility toward health agencies are all pushing the system to the brink.
“States have been picking up the slack and they just can’t do it anymore,” she said. FoodNet has never been properly funded, she argued, but the situation has worsened with so much federal funding being cut in recent months. Even where there haven’t been cuts, there have been serious delays getting federal funding to states.
The word from HHS: I asked the Trump administration for a comment. “Although FoodNet will narrow its focus to Salmonella and STEC, it will maintain both its infrastructure and the quality it has come to represent,” said Emily Hilliard, press secretary for HHS, in an email. “Narrowing FoodNet’s reporting requirements and associated activities will allow FoodNet staff to prioritize core activities.”
Chaos context: All of this is coming against the backdrop of pure chaos unfolding at CDC right now. On Wednesday, the Washington Post broke the news that the White House was firing CDC director Susan Monarez a month into the job because she disagreed with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy. Monarez and her lawyers accused Kennedy of “weaponizing public health for political gain” and “putting millions of American lives at risk.” Several other top officials resigned in protest as well. (It got even messier as Monarez and her lawyers claimed she still held the job because she didn’t resign and only the president can fire her. She has since been fired by the White House, and HHS deputy secretary Jim O’Neill will serve as acting director of CDC.)
As Dan Diamond over at WaPo wrote in his Substack this week: “I know it’s a cliché to say that developments under the Trump administration are unprecedented. But there’s really been nothing like this before — a CDC director fired, senior leaders resigning en masse, officials openly battling about public-health policy, and all in one day.”
There was also a walkout at CDC this week, where slews of scientists protested the administration’s actions. Tensions were already running particularly high after a gunman shot 180 rounds and killed a security guard at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta over anger about the Covid-19 vaccine earlier this month.
We’re at a crossroads where many experts are deeply dismayed: What exactly are we doing here? Do we really want to weaken our public health infrastructure beyond recognition? Are we going to build it back? Time will tell. In the meantime, chaos.
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What I’m reading
Eggs recalled due to salmonella contamination after nearly 100 people sickened (Today). “In the midst of a major salmonella outbreak, some brown cage-free eggs have been recalled due to possible contamination,” reports Sarah Jacoby. “The outbreak, which has now sickened nearly 100 people across 14 states, is being investigated by public health authorities. To date, 95 people have gotten sick and 18 people have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, no deaths have been reported, according to a company announcement on the Food and Drug Administration website. The company, Country Eggs, of Lucerne Valley, California, initiated the recall of its eggs after the FDA and other authorities notified the company of a possible salmonella contamination issue. And the company has stopped production of the affected products while the FDA conducts an investigation.”
Ultra-processed diet decreases male sex hormones, new study suggests (Washington Post). “A small but rigorous new study found that eating ultra-processed foods caused otherwise healthy men to quickly gain body fat and led to reductions in their sex hormones. The men also seemed to have accumulated higher levels of a chemical found in plastics and food packaging,” reports Anahad O’Connor. “The new study, published on Thursday in Cell Metabolism, is striking because it suggests that ultra-processed foods can have detrimental effects not only on metabolic health but on reproductive health as well. The authors of the new study said that they wanted to look at the impact these foods might have on reproductive health because sperm counts in men around the globe have declined at the same time that consumption of ultra-processed foods has rapidly increased.”
Texas restricts candy and sugary drink purchases using SNAP benefits beginning April 2026 (Houston Public Media). “Restrictions on Texans buying candy and sugary drinks using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) following a waiver request from Gov. Greg Abbott made earlier this year,” reports Aden Max Juarez. “Beginning on April 1, 2026, SNAP recipients will not be allowed to use benefits to purchase candy, drinks containing artificial sweeteners, or drinks containing five grams or more of added sugar. San Antonio Food Bank President and CEO Eric Cooper said the restrictions force the more than 3.4 million people in Texas that rely on SNAP benefits to purchase food that will nourish them with appropriate vitamins and nutrients as opposed to ‘cheaper belly filler’ food. He also said that restricting SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy candy and sugary drinks won’t stop individuals from purchasing those items. He said without nutrition education and an understanding of health consequences of food and beverages high in sugar, the restriction won’t result in healthy eating habits.
Doctors say Kennedy’s push for nutrition education in medicine is a good idea — in theory (NBC News). “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing for doctors to receive more education about nutrition. He announced Wednesday that a team within the Health and Human Services Department would target ‘the woeful lack of nutrition education in medicine’ by making it a greater part of premed and medical school curricula, medical licensing exams, residencies, board certification and doctors’ continuing education,” report Aria Bendix and Akshay Syal, M.D. “The department has directed medical education organizations to submit written plans for incorporating nutrition education by Sept. 10. Many doctors lauded the announcement for recognizing the role of nutrition in managing and preventing chronic disease. However, some expressed concern about not having enough time in the exam room to provide nutrition counseling, and said HHS’ resources would be better spent incentivizing hospitals to have more dietitians on staff or expanding insurance coverage for dietary counseling. Still others said Kennedy’s announcement undermines trust in doctors and sows doubt in their ability to care for patients.”
‘Failure to comply’: USDA sends formal warning to Kansas after SNAP data denial (Topeka-Capital Journal). “Gov. Laura Kelly‘s administration has received a formal warning from President Donald Trump‘s administration alleging Kansas is out of compliance with U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements and threatening to withhold millions in federal funding,” reports Jason Alatidd. “The warning letter stems from an ongoing dispute over a demand for data from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, which wants information on applicants to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Kansas Department for Children and Families has so far refused to provide the SNAP data…”
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