The Administration for Healthy America (AHA): Understand What It Is and How It’ll Affect U.S. Food Safety | Episode 112

In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are discussing a true alphabet soup of changes in the U.S. Health Agencies.

In late March 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the Transformation to Make America Healthy Again. This will entail a great restructuring and consolidation of the existing Health Agencies.

Tune in to understand what the government (says it) means to do and Matt and Francine’s great insights on how this will unfold and, ultimately, affect Food Safety in the U.S.

In this episode:

💩 [01:43] Things Matt and Francine had in common growing up

💩 [05:22] Parenting tips from someone with A LOT of kiddos 

💩 [10:52] Working in food safety and compliance is just like having children

💩 [14:09] Consolidating everything into  the Administration for Healthy America

💩 [16:57] HHS’s fact sheet on the changes that will take place

💩 [24:11] Our hosts’ first impressions of the proposed changes

💩 [28:16] Immediate concerns regarding food safety

💩 [30:30] How food safety regulations came to be in the U.S.

💩 [32:23] The much-needed upcoming paradigm shift in the U.S. food industry

💩 [36:34] Will personal opinions alter science, or will science and facts prevail?

💩 [40:49] The importance of seeking information from various sources

💩 [42:01] Cautiously optimistic about the upcoming changes, but we’ll see

Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.

Resources from this episode

Watch Secretary Kennedy’s AHA announcement on X.

Check out the Fact Sheet: HHS’ Transformation to Make America Healthy Again.

Catch up with Episode 108 | How Changes in U.S. Food Agencies Are Putting Food Safety in America at Risk.

Catch up with Episode 85 | The Road to Food Safety with Deborah Blum, Award-Winning Author of “The Poison Squad”.

Catch up with Episode 82 | Household Foods in The US That Are Banned in Other Countries.

Visit Ground News.

Noteworthy quotes from this episode

“ Good or bad, [Make America Healthy Again] is going to be a fundamental paradigm shift in the food industry, and I think it’ll be viewed [as] good for some people [and] it’ll be viewed [as] bad by other people.” – Matt Regusci

“ My only concern with any of it is, [RFK Jr.] seems to have a lot of his own personal opinions about a lot of things, and… I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t address this. I wonder how much his own personal opinions about food or any other of the health-related topics that are going to fall under this are going to affect him looking at the science of those things.” – Francine L Shaw

This episode is sponsored by Eagle Protect.

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This is a company truly committed to food safety. So please check them out at eagleprotect.com and get your gloves tested! Let’s not forget… Don’t eat poop!

Connect with Francine, Matt, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn! 

Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!