On May 11, 2017, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., 44, was sworn in as the 23rd Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Gottlieb has held several positions at FDA, including Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs during the George W. Bush administration. He has served as a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan. Dr. Gottlieb, a former physician, is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
Dr. Gottlieb’s April 5th confirmation hearing with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee provided some insight into his priorities with respect to FDA’s food regulations. When asked about the deadline for new Nutrition Facts Panel requirements given that FDA has not issued guidance on dietary fiber labeling and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a different deadline for new bioengineered food labeling requirements, Dr. Gottlieb indicated he was open to possibly postponing the nutrition label deadlines to coordinate with USDA’s deadline. Explaining, he said, “I’m philosophically in favor of trying to make sure that we do these things efficiently not only because it imposes undue costs on the manufacturers if they’re constantly updating their labels but we also have to keep in mind it does create confusion for consumers if the labels are constantly changing…” He also vowed to make sure that the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is implemented in a proper way.