Policy Alert: USDA Terminates Two Food Safety Advisory Committees

Action: The Department of Agriculture (USDA) reportedly terminated two advisory committees tasked with advising policymakers on food safety, as part of the Administration’s cost-cutting efforts. The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) included experts from academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations and advised USDA on food safety guidelines based on science.

Key Insights

• NACMCF, established in 1988, advised the Secretaries of several agencies, including USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. Its recent work included developing advice on using genomic analysis to better identify foodborne pathogens such as listeria, which was responsible for a widespread outbreak last year in Boar’s Head deli meats, as well as studying cronobacter contamination of powdered infant formula following a 2022 contamination which eventually led to a nationwide formula shortage.
• NACMPI was established in 1971 to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on matters affecting Federal and state inspection program activities concerning meat, poultry, and food safety.
• Recent NACMPI meetings focused on establishment sizes and inspection technology, as well as how USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) “can enhance outreach efforts to best promote equity and bring economic opportunity to underserved communities and individuals, while strengthening the food supply chain.” This focus on equity could have contributed to ending the committee, given the Administration’s suspension or termination of DEI programs in other agencies.
• The dismantling of the two committees will likely not result in significant cost-savings, with the annual budgets of NACMCF and NACMPI at $225,000 and $75,000, respectively. Members were unpaid, and together the two groups had the equivalent of two full-time employees. While notification of the terminations has not yet been published in the Federal Register, members of the committee received notice that it was being disbanded in early March.