{"id":610144,"date":"2023-02-20T13:50:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T19:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/20\/coalition-speaks-out-against-luke-warm-plan-for-proposed-fda-reorganization\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T13:50:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T19:50:03","slug":"coalition-speaks-out-against-luke-warm-plan-for-proposed-fda-reorganization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/20\/coalition-speaks-out-against-luke-warm-plan-for-proposed-fda-reorganization\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition speaks out against luke warm plan for proposed FDA reorganization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u2014 OPINION \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> A coalition of organizations sent this letter to Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/em> <\/p>\n

Dear Secretary Becerra,<\/p>\n

We write to express our concern about the problems in the Food and Drug\u00a0Administration\u2019s (FDA\u2019s) Foods Program and the need for an organizational, structural, and cultural overhaul.<\/p>\n

We represent a wide range of FDA stakeholders in the consumer community, the food industry,\u00a0and among FDA\u2019s state regulatory partners. We appreciate Commissioner Robert Califf\u2019s\u00a0recognition that significant overhaul is needed and his solicitation of external input as he considers changes.<\/p>\n

However, many experts agree that the reform proposal the Commissioner announced on January 31 falls far short of what is required for FDA to succeed in its food safety mission because the proposed Deputy Commissioner role appears to lack the authority needed to implement and sustain the needed changes. We urgently request a meeting with you and your team to share our concerns and possible solutions before the Commissioner announces the next steps in his plan.<\/p>\n

The problems in the FDA Foods Program were well documented in a comprehensive investigative report published in\u00a0Politico\u00a0in April 2022. In response to that report, the Commissioner asked a seasoned panel of experts convened by the Reagan-Udall Foundation to\u00a0analyze the program\u2019s deficiencies and recommend changes. The panel found and documented\u00a0serious organizational, structural, and cultural obstacles to the program\u2019s success and outlined\u00a0many recommendations for change, including options for reorganizing the program to elevate and unify it and strengthen its internal and external accountability.<\/p>\n

Importantly, every organizational option the panel provided called for unifying all elements of the program under a new deputy commissioner with direct line management authority and accountability for the program\u2019s success. The Commissioner\u2019s announced changes rejected that\u00a0advice. While it included the deputy commissioner position, it failed to empower it with direct\u00a0line management authority over FDA\u2019s food-related field inspection force, which consumes over 60 percent of all FDA food resources and is crucial to the implementation of the Food Safety\u00a0Modernization Act (FSMA). The Commissioner also excluded from the deputy commissioner\u2019s direct authority elements of FDA\u2019s Center for Veterinary Medicine that relate directly to food safety and FSMA implementation.<\/p>\n

We advised the Commissioner of our concerns in the attached letter and met with him on this matter on February 14. Our group left with the sense that the Commissioner did not feel that direct line authority was needed but encouraged us to continue expressing our concerns.<\/p>\n

We understand that organizational change can be difficult and often faces internal resistance, but\u00a0the result of the Commissioner\u2019s half step is that the Food Program will remain organizationally fragmented with a divided leadership structure. Extensive experience has shown that this\u00a0structure is not sufficient in supporting FDA\u2019s public health mission and will not contribute to\u00a0badly needed cultural changes.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We hope to be able to meet with you soon. <\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

American Frozen Food Institute
Consumer Reports
STOP Foodborne Illness
Association of Food and Drug Officials
Environmental Working Group
Western Growers
Consumer Brands Association
Internal Fresh Produce Association<\/p>\n

cc: FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, Andrea Palm, Bruce Reed, Susan Rice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Guest Contributor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2014 OPINION \u2014 Editor\u2019s note: A coalition of organizations sent this letter to Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dear Secretary Becerra, We write to express our concern about the problems in the Food and Drug\u00a0Administration\u2019s (FDA\u2019s) Foods Program and the need for an organizational, structural, and cultural<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3011,1741],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-610144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coalition","8":"category-speaks"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}