Inside the important role food science must play in upcoming food and agriculture legislation
With a new administration comes a new era of uncertainty around the future of food and the legislation that will shape it for years to come. Food and nutrition security, food safety, and sustainable food systems will be on the docket as key legislation like the Farm Bill and the Food Traceability Rule are poised to make a big impact on the food and agricultural communities in the coming years. Now, more than ever, it is critical that parties – regardless of political affiliation – recognize the critical need for more science to inform regulations in policies and legislation. Top legislative priorities for the food science community are increasing agrifood research funding, elevating science-based policies – from dietary guidelines to supplemental nutrition programs – while ensuring sound science is foundational in legislative decision-making.
Farm Bill
The Farm Bill offers a major path for funding agriculture, food and nutrition research. One area of opportunity would be authorizing and then appropriating full funding of the Agriculture & Food Research Initiatives (AFRI), the USDA’s flagship competitive research program for the agricultural sciences. AFRI is the largest federal program providing competitive grants for fundamental research, applied research, extension, and education in food and agriculture – and is a critical source of funding for universities, government agencies, and private companies. Established as part of the National Institute of Food & Agriculture in the 2008 Farm Bill, it was most recently reauthorized in the 2018 Farm Bill. Since 2008, it has funded over 5000 project applications and distributed more than $3 billion.
Another path is updating Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). DRIs are the standard for nutrient recommendations and are essential to nutrition policy, functioning as the scientific background to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and federal feeding programs. They are a set of quantitative nutrient reference values used to plan and assess nutrient intake of a country’s population.
Although DRIs are foundational to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Nutrition Facts Label, and other federal nutrition policies and programs, there is no dedicated funding stream or statutory requirement for updating DRIs. For decades, there have only been a few DRI updates, and this has been dependent on sporadically available funding support provided by Congress to federal agencies. Today, many nutrient DRIs are outdated or have yet to be developed, necessitating the need for mandatory updating and funding to support a regular schedule of DRI development and updates.
Funding foundational science in food and nutrition, like DRI development, is essential to ensuring accurate dietary recommendation and that related federal, state, and local food and nutrition programs meet the needs of Americans.
FSMA Rule 204
Implementation of the FDA’s Rule 204, better known as the Food Traceability Rule, will be a significant step forward in the protection of the food supply when the compliance deadline of January 20, 2026, arrives. When the FDA announced the Food Traceability Rule on November 21, 2022, it gave food companies three years to ensure that their food traceability system allows the food organization to support critical tracking events and key data elements, traceability lot codes, a traceability plan, as well as the ability to provide data to the FDA within 24 hours.
Part of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that was initiated over a decade ago, Rule 204 is designed to help facilitate more efficient recalls of high-risk foods in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak by requiring the capture and sharing of product identification and movement data throughout the food chain. It is also meant to allow for quicker and more accurate tracking of potentially harmful foods. Draft legislation in 2024 Appropriations Bills could delay implementation of the Food Traceability Rule – a proposal that delays much needed improvements and unnecessarily puts people at risk with food recalls on the rise.
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee
The food science community must also have a ‘seat at the table’ and have representation in critical forums, such as the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which is comprised of a group of nationally recognized scientific experts in food and nutrition that provides independent, science-based advice to Health and Human Services and USDA. Notably, the committee develops a scientific report that informs the updated editions of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The committee is tasked with reviewing the current body of nutrition science and developing a scientific report for HHS and USDA to consider as these governing bodies develop the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030. Having food science expertise on the committee is critical not only when addressing questions that include food processing but to ensure the recommendations are scalable.
For a list of the sources used in this article, please contact the editor.
By Anna Rosales, Senior Director of Government Affairs and Nutrition, Institute of Food Technologists
Anna Rosales, RD, is the Senior Director of Government Affairs and Nutrition at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) where she leads nutrition science initiatives and Codex engagement, as well as coordinates government affairs for IFT’s Science and Policy Initiatives team. Previously, Anna served as the Director of Nutrition and Science Communications for Barilla, one of the world’s leading Italian food companies. Prior to her work at Barilla, she was the corporate dietitian for Yakult, the Japanese probiotic company, where she educated health professionals and consumers on the benefits of probiotics. Anna developed her clinical expertise as a clinical dietitian at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, while she completed her dietetic internship with ARAMARK in New York City.