One month into the FDA’s new Human Foods Program, Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones will appear in a webinar by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.
The FDA the country’s oldest comprehensive consumer protection agency, began its new chapter on Oct. 1. The new human foods program took effect after a reorganization that impacted all of the FDA.
For more than a century, the FDA has, among other things, been responsible for helping ensure the safety of food products consumed by hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers while promoting healthy diets and improved nutrition.
The unified Human Foods Program, a new model for field operations and other modernization efforts, has only been underway for a few days. It follows the single largest reorganization in the agency’s modern history, which affected more than 8,000 employees and touched almost every facet of the FDA.
FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., and Jones, at the kickoff for the new organization, said:” We appreciate the dedication and enthusiasm of the FDA staff who are on this reorganization journey with us, as well as the helpful feedback we received from external parties over the last year and a half.”
They said that establishing the Human Foods Program allows the FDA to most effectively deliver on its mission to protect and promote public health through science-based approaches to prevent foodborne illness, reduce diet-related chronic disease, and ensure the safety of chemicals in food.
This will enable the FDA to zero in on those issues where intervention has the most significant potential to prevent disease and promote wellness.
“We are confident that the new, world-class Human Foods Program will better protect and support consumers and improve our employees’ ability to carry out the FDA’s public mission.” they continued.
An important part of this reorganization also includes restructuring and renaming the field operations unit to focus on inspections, investigations, and imports as its core mission. Restructuring the Office of Inspections and Investigations, formerly the Office of Regulatory Affairs, extends beyond foods and impacts how the FDA oversees all FDA-regulated products, including medications and medical devices.
The FDA has created an enterprise-wide structure to enhance collaboration between our field investigators and other subject matter experts throughout the agency. This structure will modernize and strengthen the entire agency, enabling it to work cohesively and collaboratively to accomplish our collective public health mission.
“We will also pilot a new online consumer complaint form to improve the consumer experience when submitting complaints and handle complaints more efficiently and effectively internally. This will help the FDA detect and respond to emerging public health risks better,” the FDA leaders said.
The FDA’s changes show it is committed to building a stronger, more integrated, modernized agency. This is FDA’s goal across the agency, including FDA laboratories, food safety and nutrition, medical products, tobacco products, and cosmetics.
The changes are only a few days old, but the agency hopes the modernization and reorganization will enhance transparency and trust in the FDA as the work continues.
The Alliance for a Strong FDA works with Congress to obtain adequate funding for agency programs. Jim Jones will be featured in the Alliance Webinar series on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. EST. The Alliance Webinar Series is free — all you have to do is register. For more information, contact Steven Grossman
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)