FDA Issues Proposal to Redesign Its Oversight of Human Foods

On January 31, 2023, Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf announced a proposal to redesign FDA's human foods program. The proposal shifts the functions of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition ("CFSAN"), the Office of Food Policy and Response ("OFPR"), and certain functions of the Office of Regulatory Affairs ("ORA") into a newly created organization called the Human Foods Program.

The Human Foods Program will have a single leader (a Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods) who will report directly to the FDA Commissioner. It will include a Center for Excellence in Nutrition and an Office of Integrated Food Safety System Partnerships, and will establish a Human Foods Advisory Committee made up of external, independent experts "to help support the agency's scientifically grounded decision-making activities."

FDA created a helpful 3-page overview of the proposed structures.

The Commissioner noted that over the next month FDA will need to turn this vision into a concrete reorganizational proposal and anticipates sharing updates at the end of February.