UNITED STATES - The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is continuing its efforts to support food safety in agriculture and beyond. The organization’s new unified Human Foods Program—a model for field operations and other modernization efforts—is now in effect. This is the single largest reorganization in the agency’s modern history, as it impacts more than 8,000 employees and touches almost every facet of the FDA.

In particular, the establishment of the Human Foods Program allows the FDA to most effectively deliver on its mission to protect and promote public health through science-based approaches that prevent foodborne illness, reduce diet-related chronic disease, and ensure the safety of chemicals in our food. This new program will enable the FDA to zero in on those issues where intervention has the greatest opportunity for the prevention of disease and for the promotion of wellness.

An important part of this reorganization also includes restructuring and renaming the FDA’s field operations unit to focus on inspections, investigations, and imports as its core mission, a press release noted.

Restructuring the Office of Inspections and Investigations, formerly known as the Office of Regulatory Affairs, extends beyond foods and has an impact on how the FDA oversees all FDA-regulated products. The FDA has created an enterprise-wide structure that will enhance collaboration between field investigators and other subject matter experts throughout the agency.

The FDA will also pilot a new online consumer complaint form to both improve the consumer experience when submitting complaints, as well as internally handle complaints more efficiently and effectively, helping the FDA to better detect and respond to emerging public health risks.

The FDA is hopeful this modernization and reorganization will enhance transparency and trust in the agency as it works both inside and outside the FDA to better meet our country’s shared public health goals.

As we learn more about the program, keep coming back to ANUK.