New Report Calls for FDA Overhaul to Strengthen U.S. Food Safety

“There was a serious inability by the FDA to recognize that the infant formula crisis was brewing,” says Ronholm. “The report outlines how the FDA, which regulates three-quarters of the U.S. food supply, must end its insulated and fragmented culture, which makes it all too easy to keep important information secret, and prevents real coordination and strategic planning from happening.”  

The expert panel behind the report calls for several key changes, including a new structure at the FDA that would centralize food safety under one leader and bolder use of enforcement actions like mandatory food recalls when necessary—which can be faster than waiting for companies to issue voluntary recalls. It also argues for more funding and resources for food safety at the FDA. 

The report describes the FDA human food programs as being in near “constant turmoil” with an “aversion to risk [that] compromises the Agency’s willingness to act.” Its lack of leadership, the report says, “has contributed to a culture of indecisiveness and inaction.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said today in a statement that in the past several years, the FDA’s food program “has been stressed by the increasing diversity and complexity of the nation’s food systems and supply chain, the ongoing impacts associated with climate change, and rapid advances in the science underlying many of the foods we eat today.” Califf said he would be putting together an advisory group to work on putting the report’s recommendations into place, calling the effort a “top priority” at the agency.