Food safety expert rejoins FDA

Food safety expert rejoins FDA    Nationally recognized food safety expert Michael R. Taylor will return to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to serve as senior advisor to the commissioner.
   Taylor most recently served as a research professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. He will now work collaboratively with the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Congress, and Obama administration.
   At the FDA, Taylor will specifically work to:
   ‘ Assess current food program challenges and opportunities.
   ‘ Identify capacity needs and regulatory priorities.
   ‘ Develop plans for allocating fiscal year 2010 resources.
   ‘ Develop the FDA’s budget request for fiscal year 2011.
   ‘ Plan implementation of new food safety legislation.
   Taylor began his career at the FDA in 1976 as a litigating attorney. He served as the FDA’s deputy commissioner for policy from 1991 to 1994. From 1994 to 1996, he was administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, and acting undersecretary for food safety. Since 2000, Taylor has worked in academic and research settings on the challenges facing the nation’s food safety system and ways to address them.