Over its 104-year history in managing food safety, FDA has been using the same tools, regulation, and inspection to make food safer. While there were some early achievements, these tools are no longer effective at making food quality reliable. Recommendations are advanced that would make FDA more of a scientific problem solver, rather than a policy enforcer.

Dr. Williams’ talk, “A New Role for FDA to Make Food Safer,” was presented for the first time on September 27, 2010, at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s “Economics of Improved Safety Practices” in Monterey, California.