Donald Trump is not a fan of food safety
Fast food lover and taco bowl connoisseur Donald Trump promised to put the "FDA Food Police" back in their place by eliminating "specific regulations," a fact sheet released by his campaign Thursday said. In doing so, Trump would effectively "roll back food safety regulations if he wins the White House," The Hill reports.
"The FDA Food Police [...] dictate how the federal government expects farmers to produce fruits and vegetables and even dictates the nutritional content of dog food," the fact sheet warned. "The rules govern the soil farmers use, farm and food production hygiene, food packaging, food temperatures, and even what animals may roam which fields and when."
The Food and Drug Administration has recently implemented new rules to protect Americans from food-borne illnesses — involving controls on manufacturing, processing, packing, and otherwise handling food for both people, pets, and livestock — but Trump called such measures "inspection overkill." Earlier this summer, the FDA ruined everyone's year by recommending people not consume raw cookie dough at risk of getting E. coli; at the same time, there have been several major outbreaks of the bacteria in 2016, including a June recall of 10 million pounds of possibly contaminated flour.
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"My plan will embrace the truth that people flourish under minimum government burden," Trump assured.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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