The Future of Food Safety: Everyone Has a Seat at the Table

Details

Date: Wednesday, March 1
Time: 2 to 5 p.m. EST
This pre-conference workshop is limited to 20 participants.
FDA’s Closer to Zero Action Plan – What’s the Food Safety Message?
This pre-conference workshop, sponsored by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), will provide participants with an overview of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) work to reduce exposure to arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury from foods and educate caregivers on the important roles of food variety and nutrition in helping to protect growing children from the potential adverse health effects associated with these environmental contaminants.
Closer to Zero is an action plan launched by the FDA in 2021 to drive down levels of these heavy metals and metalloids in foods consumed by babies and young children to as low as feasible through guidance to industry on science and feasibility-based action levels. But this food safety issue is far from simple. Food sources of these contaminants are also sources of nutrients essential for child growth and development and include some of the healthiest foods recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Attention to this issue, therefore, could have unintended consequences such as parents avoiding foods that are nutritious because they hear the foods are a focus for contaminant reductions.
Promoting healthy food choices that have unavoidable levels of these contaminants presents several challenges. To create messages that educate and resonate with the public, the FDA is developing messages grounded in science and communications approaches informed by consumer studies and risk communication theory.