FDA briefing

David Acheson, assistant commissioner of the Food Protection for the FDA, spoke to Farm Bureau delegates yesterday. Someone asked about the FDA's position on the safety of food from animal clones, but he said he could speak about that yet, but news would be coming from the agency soon. Soon happens to be today; there is a media briefing at 11 a.m. today concerning the agency's final cloning risk assessment on food from animal clones.

Acheson had a powerpoint presentation that I will publish here later that reviewed some of the challenges the FDA faced in the past couple of years and how the Food Protection Plan seeks to answer those challenges. After the session, I asked Acheson questions about the produce industry traceability initiative and what his thoughts were about the idea of user fees versus license fees for food marketers. More coming... .