The top FDA official involved in stricter controls on antibiotics in livestock and implementation of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization law, Michael Taylor, will leave the agency on June 1 after more than five years as deputy commissioner. “Taylor plans to continue working on in the food safety arena, focusing on those settings where people lack regular access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food,” said an FDA statement. FDA chief scientist Stephen Ostroff, who briefly was acting commissioner, will replace Taylor as deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.
“A nationally recognized food safety expert, Mr. Taylor has served in numerous high-level positions at FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as a research professor in the academic community, and on several National Academy of Sciences expert committees studying food-related issues,” says the FDA biography.
Taylor was criticized, however, for working, from 1998-2001, as vice president for public policy at Monsanto Co, a leader in genetic engineering of foods. Taylor started his professional career as an FDA lawyer, was in charge of meat-safety programs at USDA, worked as a research professor and returned to FDA in 2009 as senior advisor to the commissioner and in January was named to the newly created post of deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.