Head of FDA food division resigns

Jim Jones, head of the food division at the Food and Drug Administration, has resigned, NBC News has reported. The division oversees inspections and recalls in efforts to keep the country’s food supply safe.

NBC cited a source familiar with the matter in a Feb. 18 report. The resignation was also reported earlier by Bloomberg News, and Jones spoke about his decision in an interview with Stat News.

In that interview, Jones said the firing of 89 people in the food division effectively dismantled the group.

FDA workers were included in the thousands cut by the Trump administration last week.

“I’m not sure if it’s a lack of understanding of how things get done, or it’s that there’s really no seriousness about what they want to get done,” he told Stat. “I don’t know. But I didn’t want to spend the next six months of my career on activities that are fundamentally about dismantling an organization, as opposed to working on the stated agenda.”

Jones stepped in to lead the FDA’s food division in 2023 in the aftermath of an infant formula shortage after three decades at the Environmental Protection Agency.

He most recently oversaw the Biden administration’s ban on Red No. 3 dye in January and the FDA’s investigation of contaminated applesauce linked to dozens of lead poisoning cases in children in late 2023.

Jones was named the FDA’s first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods as part of a restructuring of the agency in response to criticism of its organizational structure in a report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation, a group tied to but separate from the FDA, which called for an overhaul of the agency’s leadership and culture.