FDA Unified Human Foods Program reorg takes effect, ODSP now part of super office

The “single largest reorganization” in the “modern history” of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now in effect, top agency officials announced Tuesday.

FDA has created a Unified Human Foods program, and in addition, restructured and renamed its field operations unit to “focus on inspections, investigations and imports as its core mission,” according to a statement from FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., and FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones.

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

The Office of Regulatory Affairs is now known as the Office of Inspections and Investigations, which “extends beyond foods and has an impact on how the FDA oversees all FDA-regulated products,” explained the FDA officials.

“We have created an enterprise-wide structure that will enhance collaboration between our field investigators and other subject matter experts throughout the agency and modernize and strengthen the entire agency to work more cohesively and collaboratively in accomplishing our collective public health mission,” Califf and Jones added in their statement.

Related:FDA gives update on dietary supplement office status in new Human Foods Program

Under the sweeping FDA reorganization, the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs (ODSP) is now part of a super office called the Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements & Innovation, whose web page is now live. In a column published last year by SupplySide Supplement Journal (formerly known as Natural Products Insider), Jones and another FDA official — Don Prater, then acting director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition — maintained implementation of the Human Foods Program would strengthen the oversight of dietary supplements and the effectiveness of ODSP. FDA officials have stressed ODSP will remain responsible for applying the relevant statutory authorities applicable to dietary supplement products.

“In sum, our proposed structure of a larger Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements and Innovation will ensure that our responsiveness to dietary supplement issues and inquiries will not be diminished,” Jones and Prater concluded in their 2023 column. “To the contrary, we will continue to prioritize additional resources and modernized authorities to strengthen our oversight of the dietary supplement marketplace. FDA will continue to collaborate with our stakeholders to ensure that products marketed as dietary supplements are safe, well-manufactured and accurately labeled.”