In one of his first addresses to the dairy industry, Stephen Ostroff, M.D., the new deputy commissioner of food and veterinary medicine for the Food and Drug Administration, will deliver the keynote address at IDFA’s Regulatory RoundUP, June 13-14 in Washington D.C. Ostroff is scheduled to assume the duties of deputy commissioner just two weeks before the meeting, taking over for Mike Taylor who will step down June 1.

In his presentation, “FDA Priorities from the Top,” Ostroff will share what dairy companies should expect from FDA in the coming months. He is expected to discuss how the agency is preparing for the upcoming compliance deadlines mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act regulations and taking steps to train new inspectors for implementation.

“IDFA is very excited that Dr. Ostroff will join us so soon after he assumes his position at FDA,” said Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel. “The FDA sets regulations and policies that have an enormous impact on dairy businesses, and this session gives Regulatory RoundUP participants firsthand information about this year’s deadlines and enables us to begin a new relationship with this important FDA decision-maker.”

Regulatory RoundUP will also provide the opportunity for dairy professionals to hear firsthand from other decision-makers and regulatory officials who have direct responsibility for the rules that affect dairy plants, products and personnel. The full list of speakers and sessions are available on the Regulatory RoundUP agenda.

Registration for the event is available here.

For more information about the event, contact Maria Velasco, IDFA meetings coordinator and registrar, at mvelasco@idfa.org.

Stephen Ostroff

Ostroff led the FDA as acting commissioner until the confirmation this spring of Robert Califf, M.D., as FDA commissioner. Before that, Ostroff was the agency’s chief scientist 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 Mike 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, 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.