The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade “A” raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA’s Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to “Network Laboratories.”

Grade “A” milk, or fluid milk, meets the highest sanitary standards.

The testing program was suspended because FDA’s Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, part of its division overseeing food safety, “is no longer able to provide laboratory support for proficiency testing and data analysis,” the email said.

The US and poisoning people, name a more iconic duo. 😩

An HHS spokesperson said the laboratory was already set to be decommissioned before the staff cuts and though proficiency testing would be paused during the transition to a new laboratory, dairy product testing will continue.

Oh no biggie, it’s just during a transition to a new laboratory. Everything is fine here. I’m sure the germs will go on vacation while the FDA is working through problems.