FDA’s food division czar resigns
Jim Jones, head of the Food and Drug Administration’s Human Foods Division, resigned on Tuesday over mass firings by the Trump team.
According to Jones, 89 people were fired from the human foods program. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who was confirmed by the Senate last week, has repeatedly slammed the FDA for allowing toxic chemicals in food and said the agency serves to legalize poison rather than eliminate it.
"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," Jones reportedly wrote in his resignation letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, adding: “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.”
According to mainstream media reports, Jones’ claim to fame was banning Red Dye No. 3 from food products in January. The dye was found to cause cancer in rats as early as 1990, which according to FDA rules should have immediately disqualified the chemical from making it into food products. It is already prohibited or strictly limited in the European Union, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and South Korea. Jones’ ban came 35 years late and will take effect only in 2027.
Secretary Kennedy to the FDA: ‘Pack your bags’
HHS Secretary Kennedy warned about mass firings since October.
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he posted on X. “This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
Shortly after Donald Trump’s election win, Kennedy again said he was gunning for the FDA and specifically called out its food division.
“In some categories of workers, their entire departments, like the nutrition departments at FDA . . . have to go,” he said in an interview with MSNBC. “They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Fruit Loops in our country that have 18 or 19 ingredients when in Canada they have two or three?” he continued.
When asked whether he would eliminate any agencies entirely, Kennedy said he might do so only if it doesn’t require congressional approval. Either way, he vowed to sift out the corruption.
“I can get the corruption out of the agencies,” he added. “This is what I’ve been doing for 40 years. I’ve sued all those agencies. I have a PhD in corporate corruption and that’s what I do. And once they’re not corrupt, once Americans are getting good signs and are allowed to make their own choices, they’re going to get a lot healthier.”
