Office of Foods: Overview and Mission

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg created the Office of Foods on August 18, 2009, to lead a functionally unified Foods Program and enhance the Agency's ability to meet today's great challenges and opportunities in food and feed safety, nutrition, and other critical areas. The FDA Foods Program includes the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Center for Veterinary Medicine. It is supported by the Office of Regulatory Affairs and draws on the resources and expertise of FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research and key Office of Commissioner staff offices.

The Office of Foods is responsible, on behalf of the Commissioner, for providing all elements of FDA's Foods Program leadership, guidance, and support to achieve the Agency's public health goals.  The Office is also the focal point for planning implementation of the recommendations of the President's Food Safety Working Group and the new food safety authorities contained in the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

Mission of the FDA Foods Program

The FDA Foods Program protects and promotes the health of humans and animals by:

• Ensuring the safety of foods for humans, including dietary supplements.
• Ensuring the safety of animal feed and the safety and effectiveness of animal drugs.
• Setting science-based standards for preventing foodborne illness and ensuring compliance with these standards.
• Protecting the food and feed supply from intentional contamination.
• Ensuring that food labels contain reliable information consumers can use to choose healthy diets.