Legal expert and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance issued a bleak warning Saturday that the recent uptick in foodborne illness in the United States – a trend she blamed directly on the Trump administration – was only the beginning.
“In March 2025, shortly after his return to power, Donald Trump’s administration postponed the compliance deadline for the FDA’s Food Traceability Rule by 30 months,” Vance wrote in an analysis published Saturday night on her Substack. “That moved it back from January 20, 2026, to July 20, 2028. We are now paying the price.”
A multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeños has sickened 345 people across 27 states, and a separate outbreak tied to sprouts has sickened 55, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A cyclospora outbreak tied to lettuce produced by Taylor Farms has proven deadlier – Michigan officials confirmed two deaths in early August, the first U.S. deaths linked to the outbreak, PBS reported.
The recent outbreaks, Vance argued, were easy to trace directly to policies and decisions instituted by the Trump administration.
“Taylor Farms (the parent company of Taylor Fresh Foods) donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC, on March 26, 2025, just days after the Traceability Rule extension. It’s not hard to follow the money,” Vance wrote. “Even though the company is a serial offender, it took the FDA a month after it developed the link to travel to inspect the farm in Mexico believed to be responsible.”
As a legal expert, Vance noted how the Justice Department had a near-infinite number of tools at its disposal to compel compliance from U.S. food producers, but appeared to be “asleep at the wheel.” As such, she warned, future foodborne illness outbreaks were almost certain to occur.
“Contaminated lettuce turns out to be a story about so much more in the time of Trump, when the corruption gives us an abject lesson in why we need the rule of law and what happens to ordinary people when our institutions work for the rich and powerful instead of for us,” Vance wrote. “More outbreaks and more illness lie ahead.”