I. Introduction
Cyclosporasis is a gastroenteric disease caused by the parasite cyclospora cayetanensis. This microscopic parasite causes intestinal issues and is a major cause of gastroenteritis worldwide.1 The average cyclosporasis season spans from May 1st through August 31st every year. In the summer of 2025, there were about 1,180 cases of the disease reported.2 In the summer of 2026, the number of cases skyrocketed, becoming the largest outbreak of cyclospora the U.S. had ever seen. There were 19,883 laboratory confirmed cases and 1,064 reported hospitalizations with 49 out of 50 states affected.3 At the peak of the outbreak, more than 1,000 cases were reported in a single day.4 This brings to light how much has occurred in the past year to allow for such a drastic jump in cases, when year to year cyclospora cases tend to stay consistent, and in most cases, remains under 1000 infections a year?5 In January of 2025, the Trump Administration took office. In shifting priorities and implementing new orders, the Trump Administration created conditions that may have allowed Cyclospora to spread and for the basis of food safety in the US to be diminished.
II. Historical Context
Globally, foodborne illness is a primary issue facing the field of public health. With so many factors to each individual outbreak, foodborne disease can be difficult to manage. Historically, U.S. federal regulatory agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) take preventative control measures against foodborne illness. One method includes using Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP). HACCP manages food safety through analyzing and controlling potential hazards along the food supply chain.6 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) utilizes the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS). FDOSS collects information about outbreaks and uses that data to understand contributing factors, identify emerging threats, and create prevention measures.7 Due to the increase in the scale of food production and the increasing globalization of the industry, diseases spread rapidly.8 At the same time, economic globalization has created a greater need for governments to cut costs. Due to global competition prompting governments to reduce public spending and downsize operations, disease preparedness systems have become worn down.9 This makes it even more imperative for the US government to prioritize food safety. The US public health system is also deeply underfunded, overburdened, and understaffed.10 The underfunding of public health has created critical disparities at the federal and state levels and has led to more difficulties during times of crisis.11
III. Trump Administration Policies: Workforce
Since taking office for a second time in January 2025, the Trump administration aimed to downsize the federal workforce, these cuts may have indirectly contributed to an environment where foodborne illness has become more severe and harder to control. Trump’s Workforce Optimization Initiative Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) is an executive order with a focus on reforming the federal workforce.12 Under Section 3, Trump introduces a 4 to 1 hiring ratio for each agency. For every four workers who leave, one new employee will be hired. Since January 20th, 2025, the CDC, the FDA, and the USDA have experienced a -3,389, -4,680, and -16,673 change in workforce respectively.13 These agencies already have a long history of understaffing, and this executive order may have exacerbated the problem.
IV. Trump Administration Policies: Surveillance
Another instance that may perpetuate the spread of foodborne illness is the recent reduction in funding towards FoodNet. FoodNet is an active surveillance system that tracks infections caused by pathogens.14 It is a collaborative effort between the CDC, USDA, FDA, and ten state health departments. FoodNet’s surveillance area is 16% of the US population. Until July 1, 2025, FoodNet required the reporting of eight pathogens which included Cyclospora. Now, reporting on pathogens besides Salmonella and E. coli are optional.15 As an active surveillance system, FoodNet served a different purpose from other surveillance systems, such as FDOSS, which uses passive surveillance. In a passive system, cases are reported to public health agencies, which then analyze that data to assess the reliability of the reports.16 In contrast, an active surveillance system requires public health staff to directly interact with the system by actively seeking reports of a disease. Due to this active systems are much more comprehensive compared to passive systems.17 A system like FoodNet allowed for much more accurate disease reporting which allowed for public health officials to be more proactive in the case of an outbreak. The fact that they went from reporting on 8 to 2 pathogens, one of which was cyclospora which had its biggest outbreak in the US about a year later is no coincidence. Cyclospora was already a difficult pathogen to track but without an active surveillance system many early cases never got reported causing a slower government response and a wider spread.18
V. Conclusion
New Trump Administration executive orders and supported policies appear to have strong effects on this country’s most important food safety policies. The USDA and FDA have experienced perpetuated understaffing. This makes it so that inspections to ensure food safety are happening at a much slower rate, and early signs of outbreaks are more likely to be overlooked. Systems like HACCP can be effective, but only when standards are actively maintained, something regulatory agencies are currently struggling to do. With cuts to active surveillance systems like FoodNet foodborne illness will be harder to prevent. The Cyclospora outbreak from the summer of 2026 is only one example of how these new policies may have led to conditions that allow foodborne diseases to spread more easily. Unless the Trump Administration puts a greater priority on food safety and public health, outbreaks may continue to be detected late, resulting in preventable harm. Cutting costs at the expense of surveillance, inspection, and worker protections does not save money. It shifts cost onto the public.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Footnotes Agni Hadjilouka and Dimitris Tsaltas, Cyclospora Cayetanensis—Major Outbreaks from Ready to Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, 9 Foods 1703 (2020), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7699734/. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cyclospora Case Data, https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/cases/index.html (last updated Sept. 15, 2026). Id. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cyclospora Outbreak Linked to Iceberg Lettuce, https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/outbreaks/07-26/index.html (last updated Sept. 11, 2026). Hadjilouka, supra note 1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), https://www.fda.gov/food/guidance-regulation-food-and-dietary-supplements/hazard-analysis-critical-control-point-haccp (last updated Feb. 25, 2022). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, https://www.cdc.gov/nors/about/fdoss.html (last updated Sept. 6, 2024). F.K. Kaferstein, et al., Foodborne Disease Control: A Transnational Challenge, 3 Emerging Infectious Diseases 425 (1997), https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/3/4/97-0414_article. Id. Jack McCain, Doing More With Less? Past and Present Challenges for the FDA, 36 Pharmacy & Therapeutics 145 (2011), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3086103/. Matt McKillop and Dara Alpert Lieberman, The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System: Trends, Risks, and Recommendations, Trust for America’s Health (2022) https://www.tfah.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022PublicHealthFundingFINAL.pdf. Exec. Order No. 14210, 90 Fed. Reg. 9,411 (Feb. 11, 2025) Office of Personnel Management, Workforce Changes, OPM Federal Workforce Data (last updated Aug. 2026), https://data.opm.gov/explore-data/analytics/workforce-changes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, About FoodNet, FoodNet (last updated Apr. 28, 2026), https://www.cdc.gov/foodnet/about/. Id. Jillian Murray and Adam L. Cohen, Infectious Disease Surveillance, 3 International Encyclopedia of Public Health 222 (2016), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7149515/. Id. Annalies Winny, ‘We Had It Coming’: Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Reveals Holes in Food Safety System, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (July 22, 2026), https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2026/understanding-the-cyclosporiasis-outbreak.