Jim Jones, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s food division, resigned on Monday, citing what he called “indiscriminate” layoffs that would make it “fruitless for him to continue.”
In his resignation letter, Mr. Jones estimated that 89 people of the 2,000 in his division were fired over the weekend, many of them freshly hired to do more in-depth work on chemical safety to protect the nation’s food supply.
“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Mr. Jones wrote in the letter submitted to Sara Brenner, the acting commissioner of the F.D.A.
But the Trump administration’s “disdain for the very people” who would do that work gave him no choice but to depart, he said.
Mr. Jones also singled out Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly appointed secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for criticizing the F.D.A. as being too beholden to the industries it oversees and for vowing to to dismiss the agency’s nutrition staff.
“The secretary’s comments impugning the integrity of the food staff, asserting they are corrupt based on falsities, is a disservice to everyone,” Mr. Jones wrote in the letter.
His resignation was first reported in the Food Fix newsletter, which reports on news in the food industry. Mr. Jones and the F.D.A. did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The food division regulates some additives, like artificial colorings and dyes. It also plays a role in investigating outbreaks of food borne illness.The F.D.A. also funds and participates in inspections of food and infant formula processing facilities in the U.S. and abroad.
The food division’s staff members were among about 700 people fired from the F.D.A. over the weekend. People who were let go by email said their supervisors were not aware of the cuts and had no say in them.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Jones described the staff members who were laid off as having fresh education and experience in food safety work who would “represent the future of the agency.”
Those workers included people with specialized skills in infant formula safety and food safety response.
In early 2022, the division came under fiery criticism in the wake of an infant formula scandal, that began after some babies contracted infections from a deadly bacteria that was also discovered at a dilapidated plant in Michigan. The plant was shut down for a time, setting off a mass shortage of infant formula.
Mr. Jones, whose background is in chemical regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, was brought into the agency in 2023 as a reformer.
During his tenure at the F.D.A., Mr. Jones reorganized the food division, improving the structure to bring down barriers between people who inspect food facilities and those who do more scientific safety work. He also created an office of food chemical safety and made it equal to an office that addresses bacteria like salmonella, listeria or E. coli, said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on reducing chemical exposures.
“Our food will be less safe,” Mr. Faber said. “That’s the take-home. There are few leaders as experienced as Jim Jones. And we’ll have fewer staff who will have to learn everything Jim’s learned since he’s inherited this job.”
Federal food safety efforts in recent months have still lagged behind action in states, though, with California beating the F.D.A. to make some key food-safety changes. California required disclosure of heavy metal levels in infant foods and passed a landmark ban on some food additives, including Red Dye No. 3 in 2023.
The F.D.A. followed with a similar ban just weeks ago.
