The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a reorganization for the Foods and Veterinary Medicine (FVM) program that was implemented on October 1, 2012. Under the reorganization, the Office of Foods is now the Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine, led by Michael Taylor, the Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine.

The Office of Foods was created in 2009 to elevate leadership on food and feed safety and to reflect the vision that success on food and feed safety requires an integrated approach that leverages resources. This reorganization will further the integration that has already been achieved and better position the program to implement the FVM Strategic Plan for 2012–2016 and Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which emphasizes a systematic approach to risk-based priority setting and resource allocation.

Under the reorganization, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, led by Michael Landa, and the Center for Veterinary Medicine, led by Bernadette Dunham, continue to report to Deputy Commissioner Taylor and remain the major operating units with responsibility for leading operations and regulatory policy development in their respective areas.

These changes will strengthen the overall program and better enable FDA to meet its public health and consumer protection responsibilities related to food and veterinary medicine.