Bloomberg reports that 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 in 2025, stepped down on Feb 17, 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.” 

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.

These firings within the FDA’s food division are “disjointed and disruptive” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports.

Jones’s departure will “set back efforts to make food safer,” said Scott Faber, senior vice-president of government affairs at Environmental Working Group. 

So much for MAHA – “Make America Healthy Again.”

The news was first reported by Helena Bottemiller Evich at Food Fix (an alum of Food Safety News)

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