Jim Jones, FDA’s Top Food Official, Resigns After Trump Fires 89 Agency Employees
Jim Jones, a deputy commissioner at the FDA and head and a key architect of the nine-month-old Human Foods Program, resigned Monday in protest of the Trump administration’s firing of 89 agency employees over the weekend.
"I was looking forward to working to pursue the department's agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food," he wrote in his resignation letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, according to Bloomberg News.
But, “It has been increasingly clear that with the Trump administration’s disdain for the very people necessary to implement your agenda ... it would have been fruitless for me to continue in this role,” Jones said in a letter to FDA's acting commissioner seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Jones said 89 people were cut in the FDA’s human foods program over the weekend, including staff with expertise in infant formula safety, and 10 workers hired to review potentially unsafe food ingredients, according to the Journal. We reported yesterday an unknown number of mostly new hires were given termination notices over the weekend.
Jones’ resignation comes four days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as Health and Human Services secretary, the agency that oversees the FDA. Kennedy has said in the past that food companies and regulators are sickening Americans, and that he would end what he called corruption at the FDA and other agencies in his charge.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said some “bureaucrats” are resistant to the “mandate delivered by the American people,” Bloomberg reported. “President Trump is only interested in the best and most qualified people who are also willing to implement his America First Agenda on behalf of the American people. It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.”
The Human Foods Program was a major overhaul of the food side of FDA, created partially in response to the 2022 baby formula recall and subsequent shortage. That part of the agency, which Jones headed, completed a flurry of activity in the second half of 2024 that included a ban on the use of Red Dye No. 3, a new definition of “healthy,” a front-of-package label proposal, lead limits on baby foods and the start of hearings on best by/sell by/use by labels.
“In addition to his wide-ranging expertise on toxic chemicals, nutrition and public health, Jim Jones brought integrity to his role overseeing the safety of the food we eat,” said Sarah Vogel, senior vice president of Healthy Communities, part of the Environmental Defense Fund.
“The Trump administration’s decision to fire career experts across FDA’s food division will make it much harder for the agency to make sure the food we eat won’t make us sick, and it’s a sign that they don’t take the safety of our food seriously,” Vogel continued. “The FDA must work for the health and safety of American families–not for the people who profit from the use of harmful chemicals.”
