Protection of the U.S. Food Supply: Challenges and Solutions for the FDA

Description:
The US Food and Drug Administration is charged with protection of significant portion of the nation’s food supply and must ensure that the food supply is safe, sanitary, wholesome and honestly labeled. The FDA Foods Program, which is directly responsible for carrying out this mission, includes the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), working closely with the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA). Analytical chemistry is the foundation of our science-based approach to the protection of the food supply and many issues challenge CFSAN as it develops state-of-the-art methods for analysis of foods. The globalization of the food supply means that food enters the country in millions of import lines from more than 100 countries through more than 300 ports, creating significant and continually changing opportunities for intentional adulteration and fraud. The impact of environmental contamination and an evolving understanding of chronic hazards to human health is driving the need for greater specificity and lower detection limits in toxic elements analysis and the analysis of compounds such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Emerging allergens, of which sesame is an example, and new food production technology (e.g. plant-based meats and transgenic protein production), present new challenges. The analytical tools that are used to address these challenges are substantial, and include ICP-MS, LC and GC MS/MS, high-resolution MS, isotope ratio MS, NMR, IR and Raman spectroscopy, proteomics, multiplexed immunoaffinity and even DNA-based methods. An overview of our approach to addressing these challenges and case studies will be presented.

Speaker: John Callahan - US FDA Center for Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN)
John Callahan received a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The Colorado College and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was a research scientist and section head at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for over 16 years. He joined the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in 2003, served as the chief of the Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry Branch (SMSB) in the Office of Regulatory Science (ORS) from 2005 to 2013, and became Deputy Director of ORS in 2013. Dr. Callahan is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and was elected to the ACS Analytical Division Executive Committee from 2004-2007. He is a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) and was an ASMS Board Member from 2008-2010. Dr. Callahan’s scientific interests are focused on analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry as applied to food safety, and he is author or co-author of over 80 peer-reviewed publications.