Michael Taylor is resigning as FDA's first deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, where his work made his name synonymous with prevention-focused regulations established in the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition on March 8 announced that Taylor will leave his post on June 1 and will be succeeded by Stephen Ostroff, until recently FDA's acting commissioner and previously CFSAN's chief medical officer and senior public health advisor to Taylor.

Taylor was appointed in 2010, after Congress passed FSMA, to the then-new post of deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine by former Commissioner Margaret Hamburg Also see "Prevention Advocate Taylor Named FDA Deputy Commissioner For Foods" - Pink Sheet, 18 January, 2010..

"Mike came in and it was all about FSMA. By and large, that's his legacy," said Daniel Fabricant, executive director and CEO of the Natural Products Association.

"It's a big overhaul and there still is a lot to do," Fabricant said.

A key part of FSMA for the dietary supplement industry, foreign supplier verification programs, will be discussed at a March 21 public meeting at CFSAN's facility in College Park, Md. FSVP requires importers of finished supplement products to follow verification requirements, but has led to confusion over which supply chain entities are considered importers ([A#05160229001]).

Michael Taylor, above, FDA's first deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, leaves the post June 1 and will be succeeded by Stephen Ostroff, until recently FDA's acting commissioner.

While Taylor joined FDA in 2009 to advise Hamburg on food safety before becoming deputy commissioner and he shepherded the agency's development and implementation of FSMA regulations, his link to the still-ongoing overhaul of the agency's food safety regulatory framework preceded the act's passage.

Taylor advocated for broader and more stringent food safety enforcement authority for FDA while a research professor at George Washington University's Health Policy Department in Washington. He consulted on a March 2009 report recommending that FDA appoint an executive with oversight for all food safety operations and later that year he and a GWU colleague released a report detailing the need for state and local governments to be integrated into food safety enforcement Also see "Federal-State Food Safety Coordination Becoming A Key Reform Ingredient" - Pink Sheet, 27 April, 2009..

Fabricant pointed out that some advocates for reform supported combining food safety operations of FDA, the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies into a single agency, but Taylor lobbied more for establishing preventive measures as the backbone of FDA's oversight.

Food safety reform would not have progressed as much or made as much of an impact if Congress had acted to combine multiple federal agencies' departments rather than enhance FDA's authority under FSMA, he said.

The administrative detention and mandatory recall enforcement tools FSMA established have been particularly important to improving food safety oversight, including FDA enforcement in the dietary supplement industry.

Additionally, the act imposed regulations on dietary ingredient suppliers that had not been part of the supplement good manufacturing practices final rule, a gap that has caused problems for supplement manufacturers and marketers.

"If you're not compliant with the dietary supplement GMPs, there's no safe haven from the requirement in FSMA," Fabricant said.

CFSAN's announcement stated that Taylor plans to continue working on in the food safety arena, focusing on expanding access in under-served areas to sufficient, nutritious and safe food.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition noted Taylor's leadership in FSMA regulation implementation and applauded Ostroff's appointment to his post.

"We’re appreciative of [Taylor's] dedication to consumer safety while at the agency," said Rend Al-Mondhiry, CRN associate general counsel, in an email. "We look forward to working with [Ostroff] in his new position and hope he will continue to ensure the enforcement of dietary supplement regulations.”

Fabricant worked with Ostroff when he headed CFSAN's dietary supplement programs division in 2011-2014. "Dr. Ostroff is an expert through and through on a variety of issues. He has dedicated his life to public health," he said

Ostroff served as acting FDA commissioner from mid-2015 until Robert Califf's recent confirmation as Hamburg's successor. As the agency’s chief scientist starting in 2014, he was responsible for leading and coordinating FDA’s cross-cutting scientific and public health efforts ([A#05150406001]).

Prior to joining FDA in 2013, Ostroff was deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Acting Physician General at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Taylor Leaving FDA With Prevention As Food Safety Fundamental Strategy

More from Archive

More from HBW Insight