Lily Huynh/The Cougar
As the cyclosporiasis outbreak continues to affect Americans across the country, it has left behind more than just illness. It has also left a bitter taste and growing distrust of the very systems meant to keep our food safe.
That reaction is only natural when ingredients found in everyday meals suddenly become unsafe to eat and companies begin recalling products people had in their refrigerators just days before.
But it also raises a larger question: Would this outbreak have been identified and contained more quickly if food safety agencies like the Food and Drug Administration hadn’t faced budget cuts and staffing reductions leading up to it?
A growing food safety crisis
Over the past few weeks, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that 6,707 people have been diagnosed with laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, with an estimated 11,500 additional non-laboratory-confirmed cases reported across more than 41 states.
For many individuals, outbreaks like these aren’t just about changing diets or menu items; they change the way we think about the food we buy every week. It’s hard to trust the grocery store when products that seem routine suddenly become public health risks.
Typically, when these events occur, we have systems in place, such as those run by agencies like the FDA. They monitor our food and ensure we consume safe food products, especially produce.
So, it’s easy to look at them and blame the FDA for letting the outbreak of cyclosporiasis get so out of hand. But there is something else that has a significant effect on how this was handled.
The effects of budget cuts
Cyclosporiasis has existed long before this outbreak. Cases tend to increase during warmer months and are commonly associated with contaminated fresh produce. What makes this outbreak different is the timing. It comes after the FDA faced significant budget cuts and staffing reductions in 2025, prompting concerns that the nation’s food safety system is no longer as prepared to respond to outbreaks.
The FDA had to lay off approximately 3,500 employees after a $271 million budget cut for the fiscal year 2026. These budget cuts cause fewer states to test their food for harmful pathogens and chemical contaminants, increasing the likelihood that more people will get sick. It is also slowing down the nation’s ability to combat large-scale outbreaks like cyclosporiasis.
Food safety relies on scientists tracing outbreaks back to their source, laboratory testing, inspections of farms and processing facilities and communication between state and federal agencies. Every delay in that process gives contaminated products more time to remain on store shelves and dinner tables.
Most people typically don’t think twice when buying things at the grocery store. We don’t put things in our cart thinking we have to worry about catching a strange disease from the salad mix we’ve been buying for months now. We assume someone is testing our produce, tracing outbreaks and preventing contaminated food from reaching our plates long before we ever step into a grocery store.
Ultimately, this goes beyond budget cuts and staffing reductions. It becomes an issue of trust. People shouldn’t have to second-guess the food they buy every week, wondering whether the next outbreak is already sitting in their shopping cart. And once that trust is lost, it becomes extremely hard to regain.
Food safety is one of those things most people never think about until something goes wrong. That’s exactly how it should be. Americans shouldn’t have to question whether the produce in their grocery carts is safe to eat. It’s about keeping people safe and preserving the trust they place in the systems designed to protect them.
opinion@thedailycougar.com
