Dear Colleague,
I am pleased to announce that Morris E. Potter, DVM has been named as the Director of FDA's Food Safety Initiative. As Director, Dr. Potter will oversee all food safety initiative efforts within the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and will report directly to me. Dr. Potter will also play a leadership role FDA-wide for food safety activities and will take the lead in enhancing FDA's coordination with other federal, state and local agencies. Dr. Potter will assume these responsibilities March 1, 1999.
Dr. Potter brings to FDA 25 years of experience in the field of epidemiology, foodborne illness, and public health policy. Prior to the acceptance of the position with FDA, Dr. Potter served as the Assistant Director for Foodborne Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During his career he has served in various veterinary epidemiologist positions within both the federal and state public health programs. He has served on a number of national and international professional committees and has held the position of Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Foodborne Disease Surveillance.
I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Robert L. Buchanan, Ph.D. as the Senior Science Advisor, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. As Senior Science Advisor, Dr. Buchanan will serve as the chief scientific advisor to the Center Director on the significance of new and ongoing scientific developments affecting the Center's research programs and policies. Dr. Buchanan will also serve as the Center's chief advocate and facilitator of science with top Agency officials and other officials throughout the Federal government and the scientific and research communities. In addition to his position as Senior Science Advisor, Dr. Buchanan will continue to serve as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene.
Dr. Buchanan brings 30 years of experience in the areas of food microbiology, food toxicology and nutritional biochemistry to the position. Dr. Buchanan enjoys wide recognition and respect within the scientific community. He has been responsible for initiating a number of extremely productive collaborations with other highly respected scientists as evidenced by his role in the development of recommendations for standards for foods in international trade and the establishment of risk assessment principles by the International Commission for Microbiological Specifications for Foods. Prior to his acceptance of the Senior Science Advisor position, Dr. Buchanan served as the Center's Food Safety Initiative Research Lead. During his career he has also held positions such as the Deputy Administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, Science and Technology Program, Research Leader of Microbiological Safety Research Unit within USDA's Agriculture Research Service, Eastern Regional Research Center and has served as the U.S. Delegate to the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Hygiene.
I also want to call to your attention FDA's January 5, 1999 publication of new guidance describing the criteria and procedures for expedited review of certain food additive petitions that are expected to have a significant beneficial impact on food safety. FDA believes it is in the interest of enhanced food safety to review petitions for certain food additive uses in an expedited manner. Expedited review will generally be considered when an additive is intended to significantly decrease human pathogens or their toxins in foods. Petitions meeting the criteria for expedited review will be reviewed before other petitions in the review queues. Expedited petitions will still have to meet the same approval standards that are applied to other food additive petitions.
Petitioners are being encouraged to identify petitions they believe meet the criteria for expedited review. CFSAN's Office of Premarket Approval (OPA) will consider petitions as they are received and will identify those that meet the criteria for expedited review. A memorandum to the administrative record will be prepared for each petition receiving expedited review which identifies the reasons for designating the petition as such. The petitioner will be notified, in writing, of this designation. OPA will periodically review the status of expedited petitions. A list of petitions being reviewed using the expedited procedures will be maintained on FDA's World Wide Web Home Page. The list will be available at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov.
We hope you agree that these are important steps toward achieving a safer food supply and fewer foodborne illnesses. We will continue to keep you advised of food safety efforts and activities throughout the coming year.
|
Sincerely yours,
Joseph A. Levitt
|