Multiple brands of infant formula have been recalled recently due to bacterial contamination, and experts say the Food and Drug Administration is inadequately prepared to deal with the health threat they pose in the wake of Trump administration cuts.

Last March, the FDA announced the launch of Operation Stork Speed, specifically intended to “expand options for safe, reliable, and nutritious infant formula for American families”. Two months later, Martin Makary, who was FDA commissioner at the time, told Congress that the FDA had lost around 3,100 employees due to the Trump administration’s reorganization and cuts. Makary departed the FDA the same month.

Tom Brenna, a professor at the Dell school of medicine with expertise in pediatrics and food science, was brought on to Operation Stork Speed to help design regulations for nutrition.

“I regret to say there has not been any movement [on Operation Stork Speed] since the summer of 2025, at least none that I know of,” Brenna said in an email to the Guardian.

An FDA spokesperson said that Operation Stork Speed is “continuing as planned”. The agency released one related report in April on forever chemicals in infant formula.

“When it came to resources and personnel at the FDA, I frequently said we can always do more with more. Well, now, the FDA is of course doing less with less,” said Sarah Mayne, former director of the FDA’s center for food safety and applied nutrition across three presidential administrations, now a professor of public health at Yale.

An FDA spokesperson claimed the administration more than doubled its infant formula staffing and requested that Congress mandate more accountability from the industry, including requiring companies to report any positive pathogen testing results.

Mayne said the FDA’s workforce of boots on the ground to inspect facilities and prevent contamination has been dramatically reduced and is “especially lacking infant formula investigators”. The FDA spokesperson did not respond to the Guardian’s specific questions about cuts to boots-on-the-ground inspectors.

Several brands of infant formula have been recalled in the US in the last year, in two cases because of active bacterial outbreaks. In late June, a lawsuit was filed against Nara Organics on behalf of a baby who allegedly contracted botulism from the company’s infant formula, which the company voluntarily recalled earlier this month. Investigative journalists at Food Safety Magazine found that Nara Organics used whole milk powder from Organic West, the same company that supplied powder to ByHeart – which recalled its formula in November of last year, following an infant botulism outbreak that was linked to 48 hospitalizations across 17 states.

Infant formula safety has long been considered “mission critical” to the FDA, which requires all infant formula manufacturers to be inspected annually, though these rules do not apply to ingredient suppliers.

States are taking on more responsibility for regulating food safety in light of the FDA’s reduced capacity, but they do not always communicate with one another about shared contamination risks, said a source with expertise in FDA operations who requested anonymity. States conducted nearly 2,000 recall checks within the first week of the ByHeart response, while the FDA did only 21, according to congressional testimony this April from Steven Mandernach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials. Mandernach also warned that increased reliance on state regulators coupled with restrictions on interstate communication could slow coordinated safety efforts. The whole milk powder found in both contaminated formulas was manufactured in Nevada, and ByHeart and Nara Organics formulas are manufactured in Iowa and Germany, respectively.

The Guardian requested comment from the FDA on 25 June, including a question on why there was no recent information about Nara Organics’ German manufacturing facility in the FDA’s public inspection database. On 26 June, the FDA posted a report online noting it had indeed inspected and “found deficiencies” in Nara Organics facilities, adding the manufacturers had submitted “corrective action” to the agency that is currently under review.

A spokesperson for Nara Organics said their facility underwent a “routine FDA audit in May 2026” and that the FDA found “three observations” the agency suggested “be remedied with voluntary corrective actions and did not recommend that formula production be paused or discontinued”. A June advisory from the California department of public health linked three cases of infant botulism from late April and May to Nara Organics’ formula.

The FDA report also said there is insufficient evidence to conclude whole milk powder was the source of contamination. The FDA spokesperson said the agency was continuing to investigate the root causes of contamination through supply chain assessment and surveillance sampling.

A ByHeart spokesperson said the company is rolling out new safety measures, and only learned of the shared milk powder supplier when the FDA posted its 26 June update, adding that “the FDA has shared that the root cause investigation is shifting to now focus on third-party ingredients. This investigation is still ongoing.”

Mayne and the source familiar with FDA operations say the FDA teams responsible for imported food safety are in an especially precarious position. Infant formula imported from abroad carries particular safety concerns.

Early this year, the European Union announced a multibrand, precautionary global recall of infant formula, tied to concerns about cereulide, which, like botulism, is caused by bacterial contamination. Four months later, the FDA issued a recall alert for a2 Platinum Premium infant formula due to cereulide contamination of a product that is manufactured in New Zealand and sold only in the US. New Zealand’s food regulation authority, and not the FDA, discovered the contamination.

The FDA did not respond to specific questions about cuts to foreign inspection teams.

Mayne notes that the FDA is one component of a multi-agency food safety system, “all of which has been damaged by the actions of the Trump administration”. Other, bigger forces, like climate change, also add to food risks.

“The current administration is embracing policies that will accelerate climate change,” she said. “So, there is really a multipronged attack on our food safety system, the full impact of which will be revealed in the months and years to come.”

Organic West and a2 Platinum Premium did not respond to the Guardian’s questions; a2 Platinum Premium referred readers to past company statements.