Bruce Silverglade, “FDA Can Help Advance the Administration’s ‘Prevention’ Strategy,” Update, March-April 2009

In this publication of the Food and Drug Law Institute, Bruce Silverglade examines his belief that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should play a significant role in advancing President Obama’s “prevention” agenda. “The Administration should reinvigorate FDA’s nutrition mission and the agency should be instructed to develop and implement a series of initiatives that would help Americans improve their diets and protect their health,” writes Silverglade, who is director of legal affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

He outlines ways the government could facilitate improvements in diet and health, including product reformulation, food labeling, universal symbols to communicate nutritional content, and food marketing to children The government, Silverglade writes, “has an important role in mitigating the toxic food environment created by the food manufacturers and restaurant chains promoting huge servings of soft
drinks, snacks and ‘value’ meals that are literally penny-wise and pound foolish.”

While he stresses that no public health initiative can solve obesity problems and eliminate diet-related disease, reforms can be the basis of a comprehensive public health program.