Additional resources—and authority—would enable the FDA to better monitor our food supply and keep unsafe ingredients out of it in the first place, according to a new analysis
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collects user fees from drug and medical device companies to fund its work ensuring the safety of these products. Creating a similar program that collects fees from food companies could generate much-needed resources to strengthen the FDA’s oversight of foods, according to a new legal and policy analysis published in the journal Health Affairs.
“The FDA is persistently understaffed and underfunded, hampering its ability to ensure the safety of our country’s food supply,” said Jennifer Pomeranz, associate professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health and study’s first author. “A comprehensive user fee program for food could benefit the food industry and facilitate the FDA’s review of products and ingredients—both before and after they go to market—to improve public health.”