HHS adviser accuses food firms of funding fake illness group to hit RFK Jr.
By Daily Caller News Foundation (/journals/dcnf)
A top official in the Department of Health and Human Services accused an advocacy group with ties to multiple corporations that produce processed foods of helping attack Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pro-organic foods pitch.
Secretary Kennedy, who promised special attention to the U.S. food supply, dismissed criticism of the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) handling of the cyclospora outbreak as “invalid” and not linked to reductions in force at the agency, Politico reported Saturday. Singling out a number of critics, HHS senior adviser Calley Means went on to allege in an X post that same day that the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness (STOP) is “a fake ‘food borne illness advocacy’ group [funded] to give quotes to media attacking RFK’s ‘real food’ pitch and argue ultraprocessed food is safer.”
STOP, HHS, and Means did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
You actually can’t make this up.
These companies are funding a fake “food borne illness advocacy” group to give quotes to media attacking RFK’s “real food” pitch and argue ultraprocessed food is safer.
This is the group quoted in article, run by former Biden official. https://t.co/buiG5ypURU pic.twitter.com/p7QtI0Yzcf
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) August 8, 2026
Cyclospora is a parasite which can cause cyclosporiasis — which is characterized by severe diarrhea — in its hosts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 10,000 domestic laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis — linked to certain supplies of contaminated iceberg lettuce — since May 1, 2026, in addition to another 12,000 reports which have not been fully evaluated.
“We do have the [cyclospora] outbreak under control,” Kennedy said during a July 21 press conference. “We’ve identified the source of the outbreak. We and the companies that are involved have implemented a recall.”
The outbreak appears to be a test of Kennedy’s emphasis on turning the public’s diet away from artifical and processed foods. Kennedy likewise announced the launch “The Real Food Show” on July 30, aimed at “empower[ing] families to make healthy eating practical, approachable, and affordable.”
“If we have outbreaks like this one and then a few months later, it’s another one, that totally undermines the message,” STOP CEO Sandra Eskin told Politico.
President Joe Biden appointed Eskin as the Department of Agriculture’s deputy under secretary for food safety in March 2021.
STOP was founded in 1994 to increase awareness of foodborne illnesses after a 1993 E. coli outbreak caused by undercooked fast food hit the West Coast, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Many of the nonprofit’s partners include food and beverage industry titans such as Hershey, Kellogg, Mars, Nestlé, and PepsiCo. STOP, however, also includes partners such as Amazon, Costco, and Wegmans.
An estimated 53% of Americans reported having “some” or “a lot” of confidence in the Food and Drug Administration’s handling of the outbreak, according to a CBS News poll published July 26.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.