Activities

FDAAA Sponsors the 50th Anniversary of the Food Additive Amendments

The FDA Alumni Association (FDAAA) provided strong support of and invaluable contributions towards the success of the observance of the 50th Anniversary of the Food Additives Amendment (FAA) to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The 50th Anniversary FAA event occurred on September 15, 2008. FDAAA publicized the event, provided the refreshments, and displayed insightful historical artifacts to educate the attendees about the occasion.

Activities took place in the Wiley Auditorium with historical displays set up in the great hall prior to the auditorium. The Wiley auditorium is located within the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland.

Speakers at the anniversary event included Suzanne White Junod, FDA's historian, who discussed chemicals added to food prior to 1958. Frederick Degnan, now a partner in the law firm King & Spalding, who spent more than eleven years as Associate Chief Counsel in FDA's Office of General Counsel, shared his experience as a food additive litigator.

Former Director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Joseph Levitt, made a presentation on behalf of the FDA Alumni Association. Levitt left the agency in December 2003 to become a partner in Hogan & Hartson.

Other featured speakers included another former CFSAN Director, Sanford Miller, who is currently an affiliate professor with the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the University of Maryland. He discussed the "intersection of science and policy at FDA." Former FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Michael Taylor, who is now a research professor at George Washington University, explored what lies ahead for food additive regulation. Jerome Heckman of the law firm Keller & Heckman, shared his thoughts on how the regulatory environment has unfolded over the past 50 years.

Even consumer advocates participated in the anniversary. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, looked at the food additive laws with "50 years of hindsight." Early in his career, Jacobson wrote a book titled Eater's Digest: The Consumer's Fact-Book of Food Additives.