The Trump Administration Eliminated 2 Critical Food Safety Committees

In March, President Donald Trump’s administration eliminated two key United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) advisory panels: the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI). Both were cut through the Executive Order titled “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” As the order stated, it eliminated offices and committees that the “President has determined are unnecessary.” However, experts disagreed with the decision.

“The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at (the) USDA in the foreseeable future,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, shared in a statement provided to Food & Wine at the time. “These expert panels provide impartial scientific advice and recommendations to the USDA, FDA, and CDC on public health issues related to food safety in the U.S. The failure to recognize and leverage the value of this scientific expertise is dangerous and irresponsible.”

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Neither committee has been reinstated.

The FDA Axed 52 Food Standards – Here’s What It Means for Your Groceries

The FDA announced in March that it was revoking or proposing to revoke 52 food standards, including the standards of identity (SOIs) for food categories like canned fruits, dairy, and baked goods.

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The agency argued that the standards were “outdated” and out of step with modern production and consumer needs. SOIs are regulatory definitions that specify a food’s required ingredients and composition in order for it to be marketed under a particular name — like sugar and fruit ratios in jam — and aim to ensure that food labels are consistent and accurate.

The majority of the affected standards applied to the cheese segment, though others covered vegetable noodle products, artificially sweetened canned fruit cocktail, and vanilla-vanillin extract. The FDA also issued a direct final rule revoking standards for 11 types of canned fruits and vegetables that are “no longer sold in U.S. grocery stores, including seven standards for fruits artificially sweetened with saccharin or sodium saccharin.”

New Wine Tariffs Raised Alarms About Potential Price Changes

Tariffs came for just about everything in 2025, including wine. As Food & Wine reported, tariffs announced by the Trump administration in the spring included a 10% universal tariff and higher rates for certain trade partners, such as the European Union and South Africa. Notably, foreign wineries do not directly pay tariffs on wine exported to the United States. Rather, the importer — in this case a U.S.-based company — pays the bill.

Wine editor Ray Isle broke down what this would mean for us, explaining, “If $5,000,000 of wine arrives at a U.S. port that, as an importer, you’ve already bought and paid for, with a 20% tariff in place, that means a cash payment of $1,000,000 is due immediately. If the importer can meet that payment, then, theoretically, you can recoup the money by raising prices. But in the end, who pays? In many ways, the U.S. consumer.”

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report Recommended Plant-Forward Eating

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s scientific report drew major attention when it was released in March, as its findings would help shape the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for all Americans. This year’s report placed greater emphasis on the value of plant-based proteins and reduced consumption of red and processed meat, in addition to a proposed reorganization of the protein food group entirely to prioritize beans, peas, lentils, nuts, and seeds.

The one area it ignored? Ultra-processed foods. As one committee member shared, “The report did not include recommendations on ultra-processed foods due to insufficient evidence and inconsistencies in defining and classifying ultra-processed foods in scientific literature.”

The EPA Approved a New PFAS Pesticide — Will It Show Up in Your Produce?

In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made the controversial decision to approve 10 new pesticide products containing isocycloseram, a compound often considered to be a perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), colloquially known as a “forever chemical.” The pesticides, the EPA explained, will be used in agricultural settings, including on fruits and vegetables consumed by people.

The approval sparked immediate backlash, including from Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, who said in a statement at the time, “To approve PFAS pesticides amid the growing awareness of the serious, long-term dangers from these forever chemicals is absurdly shortsighted. The undeniable reality is that the Trump administration is knowingly putting the nation’s children at greater risk of developing serious reproductive and liver harms for generations to come.”

The FDA May Change What Legally Counts as Orange Juice

As part of its changes to standards of identity, the FDA proposed updating its definition of what constitutes orange juice. The proposal was tied to a petition from Florida citrus groups seeking a lower minimum Brix requirement (the sugar content that defines orange juice), as Florida’s citrus greening crisis caused both significant crop loss and produced oranges with far lower sugar contents. The FDA noted that the change shouldn’t affect the taste of orange juice and will have “a minimal impact on the nutrients found in orange juice.”

A Yale Report Analyzed How Much Tariffs Could Really Cost Consumers

In 2025, we all got a lesson on the power that tariffs can hold over what we eat and drink. In light of looming new tariffs on so many staple goods, the Yale Budget Lab wanted to understand just how much the average consumer could expect to pay.

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In its May report, the budget lab found that, without any behavioral changes, the average household could lose about $4,900 this year due to tariff-driven price increases. But hopefully, with ongoing pauses and adjustments to many tariffs, this intimidating cost can be largely avoided in 2026.

The FDA Updated Its Food Safety Protocol Specifically for Berries — Here’s Why

Berries took the spotlight this year when the FDA released a summary strategy to prevent outbreaks of human norovirus and hepatitis A associated with fresh and frozen berries. Why the focus on this one type of fruit?

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As the FDA noted, viral infection of fresh and frozen berries has been an “ongoing” problem, including in 2023, when there was an outbreak of hepatitis A illnesses due to frozen fruit sold at Costco, Aldi, KeHE, Vital Choice Seafood, and PCC Community Markets.

To help fix the issue, the agency stated that it will begin promoting higher compliance rates with FDA food safety requirements, encouraging the berry industry to “identify and ensure consistent application of processes,” and working to “broaden scientific knowledge about the viability, persistence, detection, and mitigation of viruses in fresh and frozen berries, pre- and post-harvest environments, and agricultural water sources.”

These Popular Grocery Items Will Soon Be Off Limits to SNAP Recipients in These States

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) made many headlines over the last year. especially when funding for the program was cut off during the government shutdown and when twelve states moved to restrict SNAP purchases of certain “junk food” categories beginning in 2026.

Though the specifics of what “junk food” means will vary by state, most definitions focus on sugary drinks. Supporters of the decision noted that the changes align with public health goals, while critics argued that these restrictions could disproportionately affect families in food deserts where healthier options are already limited.

RFK Jr. Wants to Close a Controversial FDA Loophole in Food Additive Regulation

GRAS, the “Generally Recognized as Safe” rule, also entered the public lexicon this year. In March, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the acting FDA commissioner to explore ways to revise its use. “For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or the public,” Kennedy shared in the statement at the time.

He posited that “Eliminating this loophole will provide transparency to consumers, help get our nation’s food supply back on track by ensuring that ingredients being introduced into foods are safe, and ultimately Make America Healthy Again.” The FDA added a proposed rule for changing the GRAS loophole to the Unified Agendawhich could be looked at in the spring of 2026.