FDA Human Foods Lands New Leader

Mondays are for… food policy overhauls? That’s at least what it is beginning to feel like.

This time last week we talked about the abrupt resignation of Jim Jones, the first-ever head of Human Foods for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA). Now, we are diving into the anticipated appointment of Florida attorney Kyle Diamantas as the new deputy commissioner, per a recent Bloomberg report.

The FDA has not responded to requests for comment, but Diamantas is currently listed as a special assistant for the FDA in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employee directory. Before all of this, he has been closely tied to the food industry as a partner at global corporate law firm Jones Day.

Diamantas is supposedly aligned and on-board with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, including limiting the use of chemical food additives via regulation – a top priority of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new HHS secretary as well as Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner (a.k.a. Diamantas’ new boss).

But that puts him in an interesting spot. While his client list is not public, a handful of food policy experts believe (considering the corporate nature of his firm) that Diamantas will likely be toting in a Rolodex stuffed full of Big Food contacts when he arrives in Washington.

He’ll then be pressed with acting on the MAHA agenda, which is at odds with many of the priorities of Big Food (read: create shareholder value). MAHA supporters are pushing for a heightened regulatory environment while all the rest of the federal government is trending toward a deregulatory era under Trump. The food industry has long enjoyed a fairly relaxed hand but the new administration – like they’ve done with nearly everything else – seem keen to flip the status quo into uncharted territory.

He’ll also be working to execute on these initiatives within an FDA that has long been understaffed when it comes to food safety experts. Remember, Jones himself resigned after 89 staffers were let go last weekend, primarily within its food safety review sector (read: the people reviewing chemical additive safety).

Could Diamantas unite Big Food with the MAHA ideology? And will he even have the means to make good on MAHA’s promises? Send all of your thoughts to adeluca@bevnet.com.