FDA reorganizes, moves supplements oversight to Chemical Safety Office

The “single largest reorganization” in the “modern history” of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is took effect Oct. 1.

FDA has created a Unified Human Foods program and restructured and renamed its field operations unit to “focus on inspections, investigations and imports as its core mission,” according to a statement from FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones, and Associate Commissioner for Inspections and Investigations Michael Rogers.

Under the sweeping FDA reorganization, the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs is now part of a super office called the Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements & Innovation. In a column published last year, Jones and another FDA official—Don Prater, then acting director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition—maintained implementation of the Human Foods Program would strengthen the oversight of dietary supplements and the effectiveness of ODSP. FDA officials have stressed ODSP will remain responsible for applying the relevant statutory authorities applicable to dietary supplement products.

“In sum, our proposed structure of a larger Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements and Innovation will ensure that our responsiveness to dietary supplement issues and inquiries will not be diminished,” Jones and Prater concluded in their 2023 column. “To the contrary, we will continue to prioritize additional resources and modernized authorities to strengthen our oversight of the dietary supplement marketplace. FDA will continue to collaborate with our stakeholders to ensure that products marketed as dietary supplements are safe, well-manufactured and accurately labeled.”

Related:FDA's new Unified Human Foods Program prioritizes food safety

The Office of Regulatory Affairs is now known as the Office of Inspections and Investigations, which “extends beyond foods and has an impact on how the FDA oversees all FDA-regulated products,” the FDA officials explained.

“We have created an enterprise-wide structure that will enhance collaboration between our field investigators and other subject matter experts throughout the agency and modernize and strengthen the entire agency to work more cohesively and collaboratively in accomplishing our collective public health mission,” Califf and Jones added in their statement.

This piece originally appeared on SupplySide Supplement Journal, a New Hope Network sister website. Visit the site for information on the nutrition industry—from supplements and functional foods to sports nutrition and manufacturing.

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