Recently introduced legislation known as the SAFE FOOD Act or the Study And Framework for Efficiency in Food Oversight and Organizational Design Act of 2025 directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the consolidation of multiple federal food safety agencies into a single entity. The bill’s goal is to streamline food safety oversight and enhance public health protection through a more unified and efficient system.
The bill reflects a push for agency consolidation — an urgent request started years ago and that continues today — by food safety advocates like Citizens for Health.
From many comes one
Introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), the SAFE FOOD Act aims to bring strategic oversight of food safety under one agency instead of the multiple agencies that each have an oversight role. Specifically, the Act calls for the USDA to study the consolidation of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We can look back over the years and see multiple calls by industry and by everyday Americans for streamlining methods and processes to improve food safety. The bills that have been enacted over the years leave the responsibility of food safety siloed by agency, thus lacking a cohesive sense of food security. Without an agency that is mission focused on keeping our food safe, we will continue to see disjointed efforts that yield little positive consumer impact,” said Betsy Lehrfeld, President, Citizens for Health.
Citizens for Health is confident that the study will highlight the need for a Federal Food Administration to, “… Protect the public health by ensuring the safety of food, preventing foodborne illness, maintaining safety reviews and reassessments of food additives, reducing the prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases, enforcing pesticide residue tolerances, improving the surveillance of foodborne pathogens and for other purposes.”*
Urge Congress to pass the Federal Food Administration Act (FFA)
SAFE FOOD Act highlights
According to the bill, the SAFE FOOD Act would:
- Direct the USDA to conduct a study on the consolidation of federal food safety agencies into a single agency.
- Restructure the federal food safety system to enhance public health protections through a more unified and efficient system.
- Provide Congress recommendations to improve American food safety.
Said Lehrfeld, “It is time for our government to take bold steps to protect our food supply.”
Tell Congress to take up the SAFE FOOD Act and use it as a springboard to create a more efficient Federal Food Administration to bring about needed food safety progress.
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Resources:
*https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9099/text
