Commissioner Robert Califf will appoint a new deputy commissioner with broad powers, but some food safety advocates say the move is not enough
The move is part of Commissioner Robert M. Califf’s reorganization of the FDA’s food policy apparatus. The agency’s duties are split between pharmaceuticals and medical devices on one side and food safety and nutrition on the other. But FDA leaders concede that its food responsibilities have received short shrift, leading to avoidable safety problems and long-running unresolved debates over nutritional and labeling requirements.
“You’ve ended up with a sort of jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t fit together,” Califf said in an interview. “What we’re doing here is creating a unified program that has clear lines of authority, clear lines of reporting, a concerted effort to create efficiency, the development of an enterprise-wide information technology system to support the operations and a single leader to whom it reports.
Some food safety advocates say that keeping regulatory affairs separate, along with the Center for Veterinary Medicine, which works closely with the human foods division, could significantly hinder the efficacy of a new food czar. “If there’s this kind of dotted-line approach, that’s not really allowing the deputy commissioner to be effective,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports. “I think anyone who works in government can recognize that it’s direct-line authority that has the most impact in terms of where resources are directed. Anything short of that, it really runs the risk of almost reinforcing the current structural dynamics that caused the infant formula crisis.
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