quality control program for testing fluid milk and other dairy products at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been suspended, according to reports, due to capacity issues following recent cuts.

The suspension began Monday and covers Grade “A”—passing the highest sanitary standards—raw milk and finished products, Reuters reported, citing an internal FDA email it had seen.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shed 20,000 jobs so far under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s leadership, part of a broad restructuring that President Donald Trump‘s administration says will lead to greater efficiency and improve health outcomes.

According to the email reportedly sent on Monday by the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety, the agency’s Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory is “no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis.”

The email went on: “The FDA is actively evaluating alternative approaches for the upcoming fiscal year and will keep all participating laboratories informed as new information becomes available.”

Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the White House was looking to reduce the HHS budget by $40 billion, approximately one third of its discretionary spending, based on a preliminary budget document it had acquired.

Following his second presidential inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the leadership of tech billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally.

DOGE was created to eradicate what Trump and Musk regarded as wasteful government spending, and it oversaw significant federal government job cuts, particularly for probationary employees, and is attempting to close down the U.S. Agency for International Development, pending legal challenges.

Separately, on April 18, Reuters reported the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), which was created as a partnership between FDA and the Department of Agriculture, had suspended its quality control program for food testing laboratories due to staff shortages.

The initiative was designed to maintain standards across approximately 170 laboratories. In an email sent on April 16, FERN’s National Program Office said: “Unfortunately, significant reductions in force—including a key quality assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists at FDA’s Human Food Program Moffett Center—have an immediate and significant impact on the Food Emergency Response Network Proficiency Testing (PT) Program.”

It added: “These PTs and exercises are critical to demonstrating the competency and readiness of our laboratory network to detect and respond to food safety and food defense events.”

According to the FERN email, the program will be suspended until at least September 30. Services hit include quality control work around lab testing for cyclospora, a parasite that can occur in spinach, as well as for glyphosate pesticide in barley.

It is unclear how long the FDA fluid milk testing program will remain suspended. Musk has previously expressed a desire for further federal spending cuts.

Source: Newsweek