How baby formula recalls have mounted amid Trump staff cuts to the FDA

A mother prepares a bottle of baby formula for her infant son in San Antonio, Texas, on 13 May 2022. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP View image in fullscreen A mother prepares a bottle of baby formula for her infant son in San Antonio, Texas, on 13 May 2022. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP Analysis How baby formula recalls have mounted amid Trump staff cuts to the FDA Hannah Harris Green Experts say the Food and Drug Administration is not prepared for the health threat of bacterial contamination Multiple brands of infant formula have been recalled recently due to bacterial contamination, and experts say the Food and Drug Administration is inadequately prepared to deal with the health threat they pose in the wake of Trump administration cuts. Last March, the FDA announced the launch of Operation Stork Speed , specifically intended to “expand options for safe, reliable, and nutritious infant formula for American families”. Two months later, Martin Makary, who was FDA commissioner at the time, told Congress that the FDA had lost around 3,100 employees due to the Trump administration’s reorganization and cuts. Makary departed the FDA the same month. Tom Brenna, a professor at the Dell school of medicine with expertise in pediatrics and food science, was brought on to Operation Stork Speed to help design regulations for nutrition. “I regret to say there has not been any movement [on Operation Stork Speed] since the summer of 2025, at least none that I know of,” Brenna said in an email to the Guardian. An FDA spokesperson said that Operation Stork Speed is “continuing as planned”. The agency released one related report in April on forever chemicals in infant formula. “When it came to resources and personnel at the FDA, I frequently said we can always do more with more. Well, now, the FDA is of course doing less with less,” said Sarah Mayne, former director of the FDA’s center for food safety and applied nutrition across three presidential administrations, now a professor of public health at Yale. An FDA spokesperson claimed the administration more than doubled its infant formula staffing and requested that Congress mandate more accountability from the industry, including requiring companies to report any positive pathogen testing results. Mayne said the FDA’s workforce of boots on the ground to inspect facilities and prevent contamination has been dramatically reduced and is “especially lacking infant formula investigators”. The FDA spokesperson did not respond to the Guardian’s specific questions about cuts to boots-on-the-ground inspectors. Several brands of infant formula have been recalled in the US in the last year, in two cases because of active bacterial outbreaks. In late June, a lawsuit was filed against Nara Organics on behalf of a baby who allegedly contracted botulism from the company’s infant formula, which the company voluntarily recalled earlier this month. Investigative journalists at Food Safety Magazine found that Nara Organics used whole milk powder