What to know: The Food and Drug Administration is set to rehire some of the staff that was let go during mass firings in the past three months.

The rehires will include some food safety inspectors and some scientists who test food for bacteria and other contaminants. Former FDA leaders and employees have said the firings have compromised the agency’s ability to keep the country’s food safe.

In August 2023, a South Carolina poultry processing facility faced a potential crisis when a former employee allegedly manipulated its chemical cleaning systems, raising questions about cybersecurity and insider threats in the food supply chain. 

The incident, now under federal scrutiny, underscores the fragility of automated food processing and the need for stronger safeguards to protect public health.

Several egg packers have been fined in England for fraud and altering the best-before dates on products.

Prosecutions occurred between January and March 2025 and involved offences under the Egg Marketing Regulations. They included the unlawful re-packing of eggs with altered or extended best-before dates and breaches of labeling standards.

Experts have fed into a report on the use of foresight in food safety that will be published later this year by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

The Food Safety Foresight Framework meeting took place in April at FAO headquarters in Rome.

Ireland has reported a mixed picture for diseases in 2024 with rates of Campylobacter and Listeria going up but a decrease in E. coli notifications.

In 2024, there were 3,984 Campylobacter and 799 E. coli infections recorded. There were 390 Salmonella and 22 Listeria cases.

The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed.