A listeria outbreak linked to chicken alfredo pasta sold at Kroger and Walmart has killed three people and hospitalized many more.

We get food recalls and outbreaks like this relatively often, but many advocates have warned that cuts attempted by DOGE and other Trump administration policies would weaken food safety in the U.S.

The biggest effect so far has been on the information side of things — especially at the Food and Drug Administration, said Barbara Kowalcyk at the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.

“It's important that you communicate well with both the industry, as well as with consumers and other public health agencies, such as CDC,” she said.

Some of the major DOGE cuts targeted administrative and communications staff at food safety agencies — just the people who would be needed to track down and disseminate information about an outbreak.

“The whole infrastructure of food safety, oversight, surveillance, what's happening outbreak, when there's a problem, responding and then trying to put in place policies to improve food safety has definitely been impacted,” said Sandra Eskin with the advocacy group Stop Foodborne Illness.

But according to experts across the board, you can’t say at this point that the Trump administration’s job cuts or funding changes have actually harmed food safety.