A long-awaited review of the Food and Drug Administration’s Human Foods Program, partly funded by the FDA, is out. The conclusion from the Reagan-Udall Foundation is that the FDA is a great deal for consumers and would be a much better deal if the agency had a lot more money and power. As the French would say, “Quelle surprise.”
The review found that in 2021 we invested $284 million in the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s food budget.
The report notes that each year 46 million Americans are sickened by food-borne illnesses. The FDA has been reporting that exact figure for decades. That would cast doubt on the effectiveness of their food safety policies, especially over the long term.
For nutrition, the report mentions that 75% of Americans are overweight or obese, with diet-related diseases costing $7.6 trillion yearly. The U.S. obesity rate was only 12% in 1990, when food labels came out, and is now 42% (plus around 33% overweight). After 30 years, consumers still find FDA-mandated food labels confusing.
I counted 84 mentions of the “urgent need” for increased funding, not just because the food program is supposedly a great deal but because other FDA centers have been getting more. Envy isn’t their best argument. However, as the report suggests, the FDA has too many diverse responsibilities for one agency, and breaking it up makes sense.
There are many food solutions that the FDA could implement right now. For safety, better traceback mechanisms are available that would allow the agency to get contaminated products off the shelves more quickly. Following that up with more investigation of the root causes of outbreaks and publishing the findings quickly would incentivize manufacturers to make changes that will help them avoid costly recalls.
One innovation the FDA has turned down in the past is icons indicating healthy foods. They’re a lot simpler than complex food labels and are a good start toward healthier diets. More excitingly, we are seeing emerging nutrition wearable devices that track what we eat and, based on personal health and dietary preferences, advise consumers on food choices. FDA should review its medical device regulations to make it easier to get these to market.
Ultimately, we will need to create safer and healthier foods from their inception. Neither trying to reform every food manufacturer’s process around the world nor educating every consumer on how to use food labels to make healthy food choices is a viable long-term strategy. We need a new way of regulating, not more money for the old ways.
Richard A. Williams is a former director for social sciences with the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the author of “Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions.”/InsideSources
