April 26/Washington/Hogan Lovells US LLP -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced its finalized Strategic Priorities for 2011-2015. The report outlines the agency’s strategic plans for the next five years, establishing guiding principles to direct the agency’s actions, cross-cutting strategic priorities that apply across the agency’s many program areas, and specific goals for each program area. This memorandum summarizes FDA’s strategic priorities as they relate to the food industry.
FDA’s final set of strategic priorities closely mirrors its draft priorities issued last fall, with the notable exception that FDA’s front-of-package labeling initiative was removed from the final list and replaced with a plan to update the Nutrition Facts Panel. The priorities also align well with the agency’s new authority and responsibilities under the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA).