Last year, the FDA also announced that it was delaying a new rule on food traceability, which would have made it easier for FDA investigators to identify and remove from the market foods linked to illnesses, such as Taylor Farms’ lettuce.

“Catastrophic” mismanagement

Last week, Kennedy claimed that the Cyclospora surge was “under control,” but critics and former FDA officials have scoffed at the statement.

“If history is any judge, when the Trump administration declares a crisis ‘under control’, it’s time to brace for the worst yet to come,” Brad Woodhouse, president of the public health nonprofit Protect Our Care, said in a statement.

Frank Yiannas, who served as FDA’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response in the first Trump administration and under Biden appeared equally skeptical. Yiannas has publicly called for an independent investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Cyclospora outbreaks.

“This one deserves a lot of questions, and it is starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been on multiple fronts,” Yiannas told Politico. As examples of the mismanagement, Yiannas noted the outbreak’s extreme size—already well over double the typical number of cases seen in recent years—as well as mixed messaging and confusion among consumers. He also said there was a “lack of strong federal leadership.”

Susan Mayne, who served as director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition from 2015 to 2023, said the explosive outbreak was a “wake-up call” on the interconnectedness of food safety and nutrition. In an op-ed published in Stat, she noted seeing people online turning to processed foods that they now considered safer than salads and produce—such as pizza, bagged chips, and store-bought cookies—foods Kennedy has tried to steer Americans away from.

But “Oreos never gave me explosive diarrhea!” one person said, according to Mayne.

“Consumers should not be faced with a trade-off between nutrition and food safety—health is made possible when food safety supports consumer confidence in fruits and vegetables,” Mayne wrote. “‘Real foods’ are vulnerable to real pathogens.”