What is the FDA doing about food safety these days?

One of the underfunded and understaffed FDA’s major responsibility is to ensure the safety of the food supply.  Here’ are the actions the Trump Administration’s FDA is announcing lately.

The Reagan-Udall Foundation (RUF) for the FDA released its Roadmap to Produce Safety: Summary Report of the Produce Safety Dialogue…the report makes two primary recommendations:

In line with the RUF recommendation, the FDA is calling on growers, buyers, sellers, and federal and state regulators to form a sustainably funded stakeholder collaboration that includes academia and consumer advocates and actively improves conditions and practices to reduce contamination and prevent foodborne illness.

Comment: The RUF is an independent group created by Congress to support the FDA.  Produce safety is a huge issue for the FDA, complicated because oversight is split between it and the USDA.  Produce becomes unsafe when it is exposed to pathogenic organisms spread by animal waste.  Yes, everyone involved in the food chain shares responsibility for safety.  By law, everyone who produces food is supposed to do it safely.  In practice, everyone points fingers at everyone else.  Collaboration would be nice.  But calling for enforcement of existing laws makes more sense.

The FDA’s Human Foods Program published their proposed 2025 guidance agenda…These topics are a priority for the agency’s Human Foods Program to complete during 2025. New topics include:

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