In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced new FDA leadership and a new Food Safety Working Group in which the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture work to organize food safety efforts across all levels of government.
There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don’t cause us harm. That is the mission of our Food and Drug Administration and it is a mission shared by our Department of Agriculture, and a variety of other agencies and offices at just about every level of government.
The President called food-borne illness a “hazard to public health” and “unacceptable” and said new FDA officials would work with other agencies to prevent and contain outbreaks as part of the Food Safety Working Group.
This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them. And I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible.
New FDA Commissioner: Dr. Margaret Hamburg
Experience: Nuclear Threat Initiative’s founding Vice President for the Biological Program; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Commissioner of Health for the City of New York; Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
New Principal Deputy Commissioner: Dr. Joshua Sharfstein
Experience: Baltimore Commissioner of Health; member of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine.
At the end of the address, President Obama also announced several specific policy changes.
As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply. And we are also strengthening our food safety system and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar investment, a portion of which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors, helping ensure that the FDA has the staff and support they need to protect the food we eat.
