Stop Foodborne Illness, the Voice for Safe Food, is encouraged by today’s release of the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s report on the foods program of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The lengthy document discusses in detail the potential to modernize and restructure the FDA to put consumer health and safety first.
This report has been months in the making from this independent, expert panel. However, STOP and several consumer advocacy groups and industry associations have been calling for these changes since the powdered infant formula crisis exposed the FDA’s internal dysfunction to the broader public.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year an estimated 48 million (1 in 6) Americans experience a preventable foodborne illness. Of these, 128,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die. The FDA’s culture, structure and its under-funding must be changed to begin to reduce these numbers. The system must be fixed.
We encourage the Commissioner to continue down this path with urgency and with engagement from both internal and external stakeholders, such as STOP.
In July 2022, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf requested that the Reagan-Udall Foundation convene an Independent Expert Panel to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the FDA Human Foods Program with the aim of strengthening FDA’s food regulatory role. While affirming that Americans generally have access to safe and nutritious foods, Dr. Califf acknowledged that the Agency has “confronted a series of challenges that have tested our regulatory frameworks and stressed the agency’s operations, prompting me to take a closer look at how we do business.” He readily admitted FDA operations “are challenged by our nation’s endlessly complex food systems and supply chain”. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the Commissioner requested the evaluation be completed within 60 business days.
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