Fixing Food

An FDA economist discovers that solutions for food safety and nutrition lie in the hands of entrepreneurs—not government regulation and education. With about half of the U.S. population expected to be obese by 2030 and one out of six Americans getting sick every year, why is the Food and Drug Administration spending years trying to figure out if almond milk should be called “milk”? As a twenty-seven-year veteran of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, Dr. Richard A. Williams poses this question. Dr. Williams also questions the accuracy of more than thirty years of food labeling, coupled with consumer education on diet/disease relationships and failed attempts to get consumers to track intakes. It is time for the American people to look elsewhere for solutions, rather than relying on the FDA. Fixing Food takes you inside the FDA and explores the inner workings that drove failed strategies. Following his tenure at the FDA, Dr. Williams spent more than a decade investigating new sciences—including genetic and microbial sciences—that are leading to innovative foods and products. With one of the greatest public health crises in American history ongoing, this research aims to solve our issues with food—once and for all. In this book, you will learn: • How FDA controls Congress, the Courts, and the Executive Branch and others who might be a threat to their resources and growth of power • How the FDA misuses risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis • How the FDA’s most recent innovation to keep food safe is fifty years old • Why food labeling has been a disaster • How entrepreneurs are remaking foods to be safer and healthier • How new medical devices will ultimately make nutrition as easy as using a cell phone • How trying to educate consumers through food labeling has been a public health disaster Ultimately, the role of the FDA in the new world of food safety and nutrition must change if the agency is to stay relevant.