Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine for the Food and Drug Administration, announced yesterday that he plans to leave the agency in June. According to FDA, he plans to continue working in the food safety arena, focusing on settings where people lack regular access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food. Taking his place will be Stephen Ostroff, M.D., who led the FDA as acting commissioner until the recent confirmation of Robert Califf, M.D., as FDA commissioner.

Since joining FDA in 2009, Taylor has directed the agency’s efforts to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act and nutrition-related initiatives. A regular speaker at IDFA’s annual Regulatory RoundUP, Taylor understood the importance of dialogue, partnership and active stakeholder engagement in gaining compliance and effecting change.

“My colleagues in the dairy industry and I have enjoyed working with Mike Taylor over the years and always appreciated his common-sense approach to working with the food industry while expertly carrying out his charge to keep the country’s food supply safe. He is a consummate professional who welcomed input on all sides of an issue before making the tough decisions. We wish him well in the future and hope our paths will continue to cross,” said Clay Hough, IDFA senior group vice president.

Stephen Ostroff Takes the Reins

Prior to serving as acting FDA commissioner, Ostroff was named the agency’s chief scientist in 2014 and was responsible for leading and coordinating FDA’s scientific and public health efforts. He joined FDA in 2013 as chief medical officer in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and senior public health advisor to Mr. Taylor.

Before coming to FDA, Ostroff served as deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and as Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Acting Physician General at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed residencies in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and in preventive medicine at CDC.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with Dr. Ostroff and look forward to helping him become more acquainted the issues that are important to our members and the dairy industry,” Hough said.

For more information, contact Hough at chough@idfa.org.