The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today published the final draft of its “Food and Veterinary Medicine Program Strategic Plan 2012-2016” to guide the administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and Center for Veterinary Medicine over the next five years. The plan aims to implement the legislative mandates laid out by Congress in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, which requires the FDA to create a new food safety system to protect public health. “This plan illustrates the breadth and complexity of the work we do and calls out the initiatives that the leadership team considers most important to our success,” said Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods. The plan includes both a “cross-cutting” goal of improving effectiveness and efficiency across all levels of the FVM program and seven more specific goals, each with several objectives to attain the goals and key initiatives to accomplish the objectives. Among the specific initiatives, the FDA will implement updated standards for the labeling of pet food, including nutrition and ingredient information, and implement standards for animal feed ingredients. The administration will also issue final guidance on the judicious use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals and simplify the process for voluntarily phasing out non-judicious uses. <HOME>
