The Food and Drug Administration launched its Human Foods Program on Oct. 1 as part of a broader agency reorganization, and now the agency has identified what it hopes to accomplish with the program in 2025.
The FDA is responsible for regulating 80% of the U.S. food supply, and the Human Foods Program oversees all activities related to food safety and nutrition, according to a news release.
“In [fiscal year] 2025, we will develop a multi-year strategic plan to advance the HFP’s vision and mission,” the FDA said in the release. “While that work is underway, we have developed this document to highlight the key deliverables that we will accomplish in FY 2025 within the context of our program’s design and responsibilities.”
The agency said the Human Foods Program is designed to facilitate a consistent, systematic and intentional risk management approach to its regulatory responsibilities.
Among the fiscal year 2025 priority deliverables, the FDA said it will use a risk management approach and will focus its efforts in FY 2025 on a regulatory framework based on prevention, scientific rigor and strong partnerships to prevent or significantly reduce the incidence of foodborne illnesses from foods it regulates.
“We will finalize an implementation plan and continue to execute key actions, to include educating industry and other partners on the new requirements in the FSMA Final rule on Pre-harvest Agricultural Water,” the agency said. The rule is intended to reduce the likelihood of produce becoming contaminated with foodborne pathogens from the water used during produce cultivation, according to the agency.
The FDA also said it will advance traceability tools and other resources to work toward the implementation of the FDA Food Traceability final rule. The implementation of the traceability rule will enable the FDA and industry to identify and remove contaminated products from the marketplace more quickly, reducing incidences of foodborne illness, the agency said.
The FDA said its other steps will include:
- A target release of the agency’s final guidance for the Produce Safety Rule and continue to prioritize the development of key resources to support the requirements of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
- Starting a new study in Southwest Indiana to better understand the ecology of human pathogens in the environment following multiple Salmonella outbreaks linked to melons grown in this region.
- Integrating GenomeTrakr data from food and facility inspections and sampling by FDA and state partners into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new outbreak surveillance platform, PN 2.0, which collects whole-genome sequencing data from the PulseNet clinical laboratory network.
- Publishing a new public outbreak report summarizing the data and findings from past outbreak investigations on a pathogen/commodity pair that has caused repeated outbreaks of foodborne illness.
- Establishing formal agreements with industry to facilitate food safety data and information sharing related to the growth, harvest, transportation, manufacturing and distribution of fresh produce and seafood.
- Adding new labs, both in the U.S. and internationally, to the GenomeTrakr program and launch a public training resource site covering the entire genomic surveillance workflow, from data collection to analysis. The GenomeTrakr program coordinates genomic surveillance of foodborne bacterial pathogens in collaboration with FDA labs, state public health and agricultural labs, and international partners.
- Targeting issuance of the final rule to establish an updated definition of the claim “healthy” and continue work on a proposed design for a symbol, which food manufacturers could voluntarily use on products that meet the definition.
- Continuing to collaborate with other federal agencies on developing and advancing a nutrition research agenda.
