Outreach to RFK Jr. – Make Food Safety a Priority

The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
via E-mail

Dear Secretary Kennedy:

As a coalition of consumer, industry and public health stakeholder groups with a vested interest in the Food and Drug Administration’s work on food safety, nutrition and chronic disease, we urge you not to cut additional resources and staffing for the agency’s Human Foods Program critical to achieving its statutory based mission. Maintaining safe, accessible, and affordable food is a fundamental public health priority and a key component of your Make America Healthy Again platform. An under-resourced food safety agency could jeopardize your stated objectives to improve nutrition and ingredient safety for children and adults.

Adequate resources are critical not only for foodborne illness outbreak response but also for developing and updating food safety standards, providing science-based industry guidance, and ensuring a well-trained federal-state inspection force to protect the integrity of our food system. We are optimistic that under your leadership, and with sufficient funding and manpower, FDA can realize several critical improvements that will advance the health and wellbeing of all Americans.

Ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply is a shared responsibility. Moreover, finding efficiencies, increasing transparency and coalescing the agency around its core objectives will improve public health. The undersigned organizations stand ready to provide feedback on key programs and assist in proactive dialogue to look for efficiencies and potential cost savings that could be used to enhance the effectiveness of FDA programs.

Sincerely,

Alliance for Recall Ready Communities
American Frozen Food Institute
Association of Food and Drug Officials
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Consumer Brands Association
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Reports
Council for Responsible Nutrition
Edible Oil Producers Association
Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security – The George Washington University
International Association of Color Manufacturers
International Dairy Foods Association
International Food Additives Council
North American Millers’ Association
Recall InfoLink
STOP Foodborne Illness
The Peanut and Tree Nut Processors Association
Western Growers
Dr. Darin Detwiler
Bill Marler
Dr. Jennifer McEntire
Sharon Natanblut
Dr. Stephen Ostroff
Michael Taylor

cc: Kyle Diamantas, Acting FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods

Republished with permission from Bill Marler and Marler Clark. Copyright (c) Marler Clark LLP, PS. All rights reserved.