Federal Agency Cooperation in Protecting the Domestic Food Supply Chain
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help prevent potential disruptions to the food supply chain, particularly fruit and vegetable processing plants, resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
In a joint statement, USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., and FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response Frank Yiannas noted that the MOU is “an important preparedness effort” due to the summer peak harvesting seasons, when many fruits and vegetables grown across the United States are sent to FDA-regulated facilities to be frozen or canned.
The MOU put in place a process by which FDA and USDA can communicate and make determinations about cases where the USDA can exercise its authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) with regard to certain domestic food resource facilities that manufacture, process, pack, hold, grow, or harvest food and that fall under FDA’s jurisdiction.