Tougher Food Safety Regulations Coming Soon
On Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg announced Michael R. Taylor, a former administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and acting under secretary for Food Safety, is returning to FDA as her senior advisor.
The Obama administration is about to toughen the nation's food safety standards with the help of an expert, Michael R. Taylor, who is a research professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services and will rejoin the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to serve as senior advisor to Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, she announced Tuesday. "I am pleased to welcome Mike Taylor back to the FDA," she said. "His expertise and leadership on food safety issues will help the agency to develop and implement the prevention-based strategy we need to ensure the safety of the food we eat."
Hamburg said Taylor will work closely with her office and managers of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Congress, and with members of the administration. His specific duties include assessing current food program challenges; developing FDA's FY2011 budget request; and planning implementation of new federal food safety legislation.
"I am honored and grateful that Commissioner Hamburg has asked me to return to the FDA in the position of senior advisor to the commissioner," Taylor said. "I am looking forward to working with her, Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, and all of the FDA's dedicated and talented people." Taylor began at the FDA in 1976 as a litigating attorney, served as FDA's deputy commissioner for Policy from 1991 to 1994, and from 1994 to 1996 was USDA's administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and acting under secretary for Food Safety. While at GWU, he has worked on solving food issues and agriculture in rural Africa. He has been a senior fellow with the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, where he works with U.S. and African leaders to help Africa’s efforts to build sustainable solutions to rural poverty and hunger, according to his university bio.