Getting into the field and hearing from stakeholders directly will be an important part of how Jim Jones, the Food and Drug Administration's deputy commissioner of human foods, plans to lead the new Human Foods Program at FDA.
In a stakeholder event sponsored by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA, Jones, who was named to the post in August, spoke candidly, following up on his many positive initial interactions with stakeholders since starting the job at the end of September.
He recalled that in his nearly 30 years at the Environmental Protection Agency including leading EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention from 2011 to 2017, he missed opportunities because he wasn’t engaging soon enough before major decisions were made.
The earlier and more often the agency can engage with stakeholders before the government sets its course, “the better the decisions the government makes,” he learned.
In his role as a regulator, he said he believes it is important to work with stakeholders “early and often,” and committed to trying to get into the field at least once a month. He said he’s already had opportunities to tour some farms in the Salinas Valley in California and meet with field and laboratory staff in California and in Kansas City.
“Getting out into the field, seeing things for ourselves, trying to understand what the impacts are before we’ve made choices is going to be a very big part of what we’re doing,” Jones said.
He said FDA’s current discussion on added sugars is an opportunity to hear from stakeholders early in the process, citing three days of information-gathering meetings last week.
Other high-priority activities Jones identified include finalizing the Food Safety Modernization Act’s ag water rule, the “healthy” foods rule, and the front-of-packaging nutrition proposal, and articulating FDA's 2024 chemical safety work plan.
Jones also committed to increased transparency on the use of funding, a major frustration with current industry stakeholders.
The agency is also “very close” to submitting an official reorganization plan to the Department of Health and Human Services and Office of Management and Budget for review. The plan also needs to be reviewed by congressional appropriations subcommittees. Jones believes the process could be complete by June 2024.
From his experience in advising on the Reagan-Udall Foundation report detailing issues with the FDA, Jones said there was unanimous support for the agency to designate a single individual with “decisional responsibility for foods” in the FDA.
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Jones said the leaders of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR) had identical job descriptions which led to lack of action. FDA’s unified Human Foods Program separates those divisions, reassembles and puts them under the direction of Jones.
“I would say that the structure that we are in the midst of replacing right now was designed to fail,” he said. It was not the talent at FDA, but the structure of that talent, which created problems in the agency being able to execute food safety actions, he said.
Jones said the report also identified some cultural challenges, but in his first two months on the job, Jones believes some of the cultural struggles can be linked to the structural challenges with decision-making, which he said comes from the “lack of clarity at the top.”
“I think some of the cultural issues that were identified relating to decisions taking a long time were a function of the structure,” he said.
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