Jim Jones, FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, has resigned from his post at the agency, according to multiple sources. The head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration has quit in protest over sweeping staff cuts that he warns will hamper the agency’s ability to protect public health.

Jim Jones, who joined the agency in September 2023, cited “indiscriminate” layoffs to 89 staff members, including key technical experts. In his resignation letter to the acting FDA commissioner, Sara Brenner, seen by Bloomberg News, Jones said the cuts would make it “fruitless” to continue in his role given the Trump administration’s “disdain for the very people” needed to implement food safety reforms.

According to Bloomberg News, the White House defended the staff changes, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling saying “bureaucrats” were resistant to implementing the president’s agenda. “President Trump is only interested in the best and most qualified people who are also willing to implement his America First Agenda on behalf of the American people,” Leavitt said in an email. “It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.”

Jones was an integral member of the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s Independent Expert Panel for Foods, which submitted a report in December 2022 on the operational evaluation of the FDA’s Human Foods Program. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.

In October of 2024, Jones lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s reorganization implementation involving the creation of the unified Human Foods Program (HFP), adoption of a new model for its field operations and other significant modernization efforts, notably enhancing the agency’s ability to oversee and protect the human food supply and other products the FDA regulates.

Jones was the Keynote Speaker at the Food Safety Consortium Conference, October 2024 in Washington DC. in which he delved into the agency’s recent reorganizational changes, key regulatory policy priorities, and commitment to stakeholder transparency.

“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Jones wrote in his resignation letter.