The Trump administration decided to reinstate previously fired San Francisco Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food scientists following public backlash over mass firings, according to a May 12 press release from California Sen. Adam Schiff. Schiff publicly criticized the decision and urged its reversal in a letter previously sent to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The workers, who had been responsible for food safety testing, were laid off as part of the Trump administration’s reduction in force notices for Health and Human Services workers issued on April 1. Schiff criticized the San Francisco lab workers’ initial dismissal as a “threat to public safety.”
“I am pleased that these critical federal researchers and scientists will finally be able to return to work,” Schiff said. “They play a crucial role in protecting the health and safety of Americans across the country by ensuring food and other products are free from toxic substances.”
He went on to describe the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down the lab as careless and dangerous, affirming their necessity to protect California consumers and effectively respond to potential emergency outbreaks.
The San Francisco Human and Animal Food Laboratory is nationally recognized for its excellence in virology, heavy metals and toxic elements detection and food color and additive analysis. The lab also specializes in chemistry and microbiology.
“The facility is one of only four food safety labs in the U.S. specializing in low-level detection of toxic elements in food, including testing infant formula for heavy metals,” Schiff wrote in the letter to Kennedy. “Critically, the lab’s proximity to California’s Central Valley — which produces one-fourth of the nation’s food — plays an essential role in ensuring fruits and vegetables consumed by Americans across the country are safe for consumption.”
Schiff also called for the reversal of all other political firings of government workers.
“All federal workers who have been wrongly and recklessly terminated by the president and Elon Musk’s DOGE should be returned to service,” he said, referencing Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency.
Some scientists employed at the lab are still awaiting official paperwork for their reinstatement.
Aside from the firings at the San Francisco lab, the food and drug safety workforce has seen steep cuts nationally over the past few months.
Dr. Robert Califf, the Biden administration’s FDA commissioner, warned that staffing losses were eroding the agency’s functional abilities, indicating that it was falling behind on essential product development meetings.
“Most of it is really at this level of fundamental, day-to-day work that has a huge impact overall, but it’s not very controversial. It’s just that it takes work, and they have to have people to do the work,” Califf told The New York Times.
The administration further reversed mass layoffs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health this week.
Maya Icekson is a News Intern for the spring 2025 quarter. She can be reached at micekson@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley
