October 1, 2024, was the implementation date for the FDA's new Human Foods Program. A full three years in the making, its goal is to “notably enhance the agency’s ability to oversee and protect the human food supply and other products the FDA regulates” through a new model for field operations and other modernization efforts. 

The reforms began in earnest in September of 2023 when Jim Jones joined the FDA as its first Deputy Commissioner of Human Foods. He was charged with setting and advancing priorities for food and chemical safety, and nutrition activities. By December of 2023, a reorganization package based in part on the findings and recommendations of the Reagan-Udall Foundation's evaluation of the agency's infant formula response, and feedback from external and internal stakeholders, was completed. The FDA received approval of the reorganization package in May 2024, with implementation on October 1, 2024. 

The changes in the reorganization are supposed to allow the agency to: (1) more effectively realize the preventive vision in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act; (2) elevate the importance of nutrition to help reduce diet-related diseases; (3) strengthen state partnerships and embrace innovative food and agricultural technologies, which will position the agency to more effectively regulate and uphold the safety of the nation’s food supply; and (4) allow the FDA to make additional improvements to modernize and strengthen the entire agency to work cohesively and collaboratively to accomplish its public health mission.

I will be among the many monitoring the Human Foods Program to see if achieves the laudable goals that motivated its creation.