The FDA reached a significant milestone when it approved its reorganization and created its new unified Human Foods Program (HFP). It is one of the most significant reorganizations in FDA’s history. The new model for field operations and other significant modernization efforts is only days away, with Oct.
1 set as the implementation date. It came about partly because Helena Bottemiller Evich, a former Food Safety News staff writer, left a bomb entitled “The FDA’s Food Failure” close to her departure from Politico. Evich, who continues to write about food policy for the subscriber-based Food Fix, published the critical report in April 2022.
The FDA has been working on its “fix” ever since. The reforms began when Jim Jones joined the FDA in September 2023 as the agency’s first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. In this new executive position, which reports directly to the FDA Commissioner, Jones led the charge in setting and advancing priorities for a proposed, unified Human Foods Program (HFP), which includes food safety, chemical safety, and nutrition activities.
Jones came to the FDA with intimate knowledge of the foods program, having served on the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s Independent Expert Panel , which evaluated it in 2022. According to FDA, the new Human Foods Program will “notably enhance the agency’s ability to oversee and protect the human food supply and other products the FDA regulates.” The reorganization will enable the FDA to be more eff.
