(Bloomberg) — Jim Jones, the head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration who oversaw the agency’s banning of the food dye Red No. 3 earlier this year, stepped down on Monday, citing widespread cuts across the agency that he said will make it hard to implement the types of changes the Trump administration is seeking, according to a document viewed by Bloomberg News.
“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 said in a resignation letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner. Jones said that given the new administration’s “disdain for the very people” needed to make these changes, it would be “fruitless for me to continue in this role.”
Jones pointed to the layoffs of 89 staffers in the food division, cuts he called “indiscriminate.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said some “bureaucrats” are resistant to the “mandate delivered by the American people.”
“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,” she said in an email. “It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.”
The FDA didn’t responded to a request for comment.
The staffers who were laid off over the weekend include employees with “highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response.” Ten staffers that were laid off review potentially unsafe ingredients in food, the letter says.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy was sworn in on Thursday, though the head of FDA has yet to be confirmed.
These firings within the FDA’s food division are “disjointed and disruptive” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, especially considering the agency’s expected focus on chemical ingredients in the food supply, given Kennedy’s public stance on the issue.
Jones led the agency in successfully pushing for the banning of red dye No. 3 earlier this year under former president Joe Biden.
Jones’s departure will “set back efforts to make food safer,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at Environmental Working Group. “There is no one on earth who can replace the chemical safety expertise that Jim brought to this job.”
(Updates with White House statement in fourth and fifth paragraphs.)
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