Food safety collaboration called for at all levels of government
The report, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, calls for leadership by Congress and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to build an integrated national food safety system that effectively uses the best science and public resources to prevent foodborne illness.
“State and local agencies occupy the critical frontline in the nation’s food safety system,” said Michael R. Taylor, former FDA and USDA official, research professor of health policy at the GWU School of Public Health and Health Services and one of the report’s authors. “Food safety reform at the federal level will be incomplete and insufficient unless it strengthens state and local roles and builds true partnership across all levels of government.”