Venable partner Todd Harrison was quoted in a March 28, 2017, Food Engineering article on the nomination of Dr. Scott Gottlieb to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Specifically, Harrison addressed how Gottlieb will handle the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a 2011 law overhauling food rules and regulations.
"As long as people aren’t dying in the streets from food poisoning, they aren’t worried about it," said Harrison, who expects Gottlieb to be more focused on drug regulations and approval processes than food safety since the country's food supply is pretty safe overall. "I really don't think there are going to be a lot of changes in their enforcement priorities," he added. "As FSMA gets implemented, they will probably issue warning letters, and the reason for the letters is as a teaching tool for companies. FDA often uses the warning letter system to send a message to the industry as a whole as to what is important to them."