On Thursday, May 14, leading officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Association for Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) took the stage at the 2026 Food Safety Summit Town Hall to answer attendees’ questions and provide insight into the current U.S. food safety regulatory landscape.

The Town Hall was moderated by Gillian Kelleher, CEO of Kelleher Consultants LLC and Chair of the Food Safety Summit Educational Advisory Board. Panelists included Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety; Donald Prater, Principal Deputy Associate Commissioner for Food in FDA’s Human Foods Program (HFP); Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO); and Gwen Biggerstaff, Sc.D., M.S.P.H., Deputy Division Director of CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases’ Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (NCEZID's DFWED).

FDA’s Leadership Shake-Up and New Resources

Mr. Prater took the stage first, sending regards from Kyle Diamantas, J.D., FDA’s new Acting Commissioner, mentioning the leadership change that happened at the agency earlier this week. Mr. Diamantas was FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods just before assuming the Acting Commissioner role due to the departure of the previous Commissioner, Marty Makary, M.D.

Directing attendees to new resources released by the agency on Wednesday, Mr. Prater encouraged the use of root cause analyses (RCAs) and industry collaboration on the development of food safety best practices.

USDA-FSIS Priority Pathogens: Salmonella and Listeria

Dr. Brashears remarked on the shared goal of ensuring food safety, which spans both sides of the political aisle, before delving into her main priorities as head of USDA-FSIS: Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

On reducing foodborne salmonellosis attributed to USDA-regulated products, Dr. Brashears said, “USDA-FSIS already has tools in [its] toolbox that [the agency] can use to take action on Salmonella,” mentioning pathogen performance standards. She also touched on the ongoing evaluation of existing quantification methods and the identification of the most highly pathogenic Salmonella strains present in food samples.

“We want to find the most pathogenic strains so we can make a difference,” said Dr. Brashears. “We also want to find the products that cause the most problems.”

Beyond poultry, Dr. Brashears also teased Salmonella programs for pork and beef products, rolling out late this year or in early 2027.

L. monocytogenes was another priority mentioned by Dr. Brashears. She described the data collection efforts initiated at the agency following the Boar’s Head listeriosis outbreak of 2024 and subsequent changes to the Listeria Rule. She also alluded to a new program to enhance Listeria sampling and testing, rolling out in the next few months.

Joint CDC–SLTT Efforts to Monitor Foodborne Pathogens

Next, Dr. Biggerstaff described the state–federal collaboration that enables foodborne illness outbreak response and pathogen monitoring and surveillance. She explained that states are on the “front lines,” while CDC collects and connects pathogen monitoring and illness data. Much of what CDC is able to accomplish is build on voluntarily reported data from state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners, Dr. Biggerstaff emphasized.

Dr. Biggerstaff also mentioned CDC’s capacity-building efforts at SLTT health departments and described the current resource constraints. “CDC is only able to provide about 40 percent of what is requested,” she stated. However, she explained that these resource constraints are also driving data modernization efforts to lower barriers to SLTT participation in national data reporting systems.

Improving Federal–SLTT Information-Sharing

Finally, Mr. Mandernach described the role SLTT agencies play in food safety regulatory oversight and enforcement. He applauded the Retail Foods Program at FDA, saying, “It’s the best functioning retail team many of us have seen in our careers,” enabled by the HFP reorganization bringing the agency’s food policy and field programs under one umbrella.

Mr. Mandernach also highlighted the importance of FDA’s BRIDGE Project, which is transitioning most domestic manufacturing food inspections to states, and described the ways in which state inspections are equivalent to those directly conducted by FDA.

Additionally, Mr. Mandernach advocated for expanded federal–state information-sharing authorities before and during foodborne illness outbreaks to improve detection and response. He stated AFDO’s support for an active bill, the Federal and State Food Safety Information Sharing Act, which was discussed during a Congressional hearing in April.  

“Working together with the full range of stakeholders is how we will really bend the foodborne illness curve,” concluded Mr. Mandernach.

AI: “We’re Sitting on the Precipice of Change”

In response to an attendee question, Mr. Prater discussed the importance of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) for food safety, calling it “as much of a game-changer” as whole genome sequencing (WGS). “Better food safety means better data and better analytics,” he said, describing how quantitative analytical techniques are helping FDA make sense of enormous quantities of data—which was once like “finding a needle in a haystack.”

Alongside harnessing the “mountain” of data collected by federal and SLTT regulatory activities, Mr. Prater also said that FDA is working to unlock industry data as well.

“These are going to be the tools that help us solve outbreaks, develop best practices, and conduct root cause analyses,” Mr. Prater said.