Former deputy commissioner for food policy Frank Yiannis is set to testify Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Frank Yiannas, the agency’s deputy commissioner for food policy until his resignation earlier this year, testified before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee that the agency was slow to act when concerns about sanitation arose at the Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., sparking a chain reaction that dramatically reduced the U.S. supply of formula.
“Even as Covid-19 created the biggest challenge to the food system in a hundred years, there was internal debate at the agency on whether there was really a role for the FDA in monitoring food supply chains,” he said in his prepared remarks.“I believe that the literature of the future will also conclude that this incident is a sad example of how FDA’s siloed organizational structure and culture impeded rapid critical problem identification, communication and response,” Yiannas said.
The testimony comes during a period of upheaval at an agency that has been accused of giving short shrift to its role overseeing of the nation’s food supply in favor of its drug approval side. Yiannas resigned in February, citing shortcomings in the FDA’s ability to handle foodborne illness crises. His was among several recent departures of top officials at the FDA. Susan Mayne, the FDA’s long-standing director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, announced Monday she would retire effective May 31, saying it was “necessary that FDA look critically at the broader foods program structure, to reduce redundant operations, increase efficiencies and make optimal utilization of our field resources.
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