By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Were you too nervous to eat lettuce and berries this summer? You weren’t alone.
With foodborne illnesses like the explosive cyclosporiasis outbreak making headlines, it seemed food recalls were on the rise. In fact, they were about the same, but the scale and severity of the associated outbreaks have experts worried.
In this weekend’s Dispatch we look at the concerns surrounding the nation’s food supply and bring you our top stories of the week, including who is suing over President Donald Trump’s reductions to two national monuments in Utah and the decision to send Tyler Robinson to trial in the killing of Charlie Kirk.
“I think there are valid questions around the timing of the response, the time it took for agencies to recognize the outbreak and to start to investigate it, get boots on the ground in Mexico.” — Jennifer McEntire, a food microbiologist and the founder of a food safety consulting firm, on whether federal cuts have impacted outbreaks of foodborne illness.
Vegetables and lettuces at a grocery store in Michigan. (Photo by Jon King/Michigan Advance)
STATELINE
By Anna Claire Vollers
A summer of food recalls has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness and focused attention on the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding and staff at several public health agencies, prompting questions about whether those changes have made consumers more vulnerable.
Cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration haven’t necessarily increased consumers’ chances of food contamination or outbreaks, said Jennifer McEntire, a food microbiologist and the founder of a food safety consulting firm. However, McIntire said, “I do think the cuts may have influenced the way outbreaks unfold.”
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