In April 2025, Reuters reported that the FDA was suspending proficiency-testing exercises for the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), a network of laboratories that tests food for pathogens and contaminants. The pause was attributed to staff reductions and was expected to last at least through September 30, 2025. It concerned checks of participating laboratories—not a blanket suspension of FDA food inspections. As of October 8, 2026, official sources reviewed do not establish whether the FERN program resumed after that period.
What FDA food-safety checks were suspended?
The reported suspension involved the FERN Proficiency Testing Program. Reuters reported that FERN’s National Program Office notified participants that staff reductions at the Department of Health and Human Services had immediately affected the program. The email identified four roles at FDA’s Human Foods Program Moffett Center: a key quality-assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists. Reuters said the suspension was expected to last at least through September 30, 2025. Reuters, April 17, 2025.
The exercises were intended to assess whether laboratories in the network could produce consistent, accurate results and demonstrate readiness to respond to food-safety and food-defense events. Reuters described FERN as comprising about 170 laboratories that test food for pathogens and contaminants. The reported planned exercises included testing spinach for the parasite Cyclospora and barley for the pesticide glyphosate, among other tests. The report does not establish how many exercises were ultimately missed.
What does FERN proficiency testing do?
In a proficiency test, participating laboratories analyze test materials and their results can be assessed for consistency and accuracy. That helps evaluate laboratory capability across a network; it is not the same as inspecting a food facility or testing every food shipment. The FERN National Program Office’s email, as quoted by Reuters, called the exercises “critical to demonstrating the competency and readiness of our laboratory network to detect and respond to food safety and food defense events.” FDA’s FERN overview describes the network and lists proficiency testing among National Program Office support areas.
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Did the FDA stop inspecting food facilities?
No. Reuters’ report concerned FERN laboratory exercises, not a general halt to FDA inspections. FDA describes facility inspections as a separate oversight activity, including surveillance, compliance follow-up, and for-cause inspections. They may be conducted by FDA investigators, state partners working under agreements, or foreign authorities under FDA arrangements. FDA’s inspection overview.
FDA says federal law sets minimum inspection frequencies for certain facilities: domestic facilities classified as high risk must be inspected at least once every three years, and non-high-risk facilities at least once every five years. Infant-formula manufacturers are subject to annual risk-based inspections under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022. These requirements describe the framework; they do not show how many inspections took place after the 2025 staff reductions. FDA’s inspection overview.
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Separately, the Associated Press reported that staff supporting inspections were cut and that the agency was seeking contractors for some support work. Former FDA inspection and enforcement official Howard Sklamberg predicted, “The natural result is going to be fewer inspections.” That was his assessment, not an official count or a verified measurement of the cuts’ effect. Associated Press report, April 2025.
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In May 2026, FDA said it had completed approximately 46 one-day inspectional assessments as of late April and planned to continue the pilot through fiscal year 2026. The assessments covered human and animal foods among other programs and were described as an additional tool to complement standard inspections—not a replacement for them. That announcement does not establish that the pilot resolved staffing effects or that FERN’s proficiency exercises resumed. FDA announcement, May 6, 2026.
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HHS’s FY2026 contingency staffing plan addresses a different issue: a possible lapse in appropriations. HHS said Congress had provided FDA appropriations through September 30, 2026, allowing activities to continue with 16,089 staff onboard under that plan. In the hypothetical event of a funding lapse, the plan said FDA’s Human Foods Program would prioritize safety surveillance and emergency responses while reducing or halting longer-term initiatives. This conditional scenario is not evidence that a lapse occurred, nor does it confirm the status of FERN’s program. HHS FY2026 contingency staffing plan.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did FERN resume proficiency testing after September 2025?
The available official information does not confirm whether the program resumed or whether its suspension was extended after the period announced in April 2025. FDA’s FERN overview identifies proficiency testing as part of the National Program Office’s support, but does not give a post-September 2025 status update. FDA’s Human Foods Program updates include other ongoing food-safety activity, including a pesticide-residue monitoring report released September 30, 2026; that activity does not establish that FERN’s particular exercises restarted. FDA Human Foods Program updates.
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Accordingly, the established account is a reported pause in a specific laboratory quality-assurance program, announced through at least September 30, 2025. The sources cited here do not verify its later status, the number of tests affected, or a measured change in facility inspections caused by the staffing reductions.
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