McClain Requests Transcribed Interview with FDA’s Food Safety Director on Infant Formula Crisis

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) is requesting the appearance of Dr. Susan Mayne, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2015, for a transcribed interview to assist in an investigation of the FDA’s response to the 2022 infant formula shortage.

“Former FDA officials have confirmed dysfunction at the FDA created and exacerbated a nationwide infant formula crisis. Americans rely on the FDA to oversee the safety of our food supply, but the FDA is simply not doing its job to prioritize food safety and has put the precious health and lives of infants across the country at risk. Instead, it used the pandemic as an excuse to neglect inspections and justify poor performance,” said Chairwoman McClain.

“It is imperative that we hold an interview with Dr. Mayne, who oversaw the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition throughout the pandemic and during the formula crisis, prior to her retirement at the end of May. We look forward to getting to the bottom of the FDA’s internal failures that led our nation into an infant formula crisis and examining solutions to ensure our agencies protect our families from this happening again.”

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is continuing its investigation into the FDA’s response to the infant formula shortage, including its restructuring of the food and nutrition division. As the Biden Administration scrambled to contain the issue, families across the nation were presented with the question of how they would feed the infants in their families and communities. Instead of removing or reassigning the individuals at fault for the poor response to this crisis, the FDA announced restructuring of the food and nutrition division simply requires certain offices and personnel to report to the newly created position of Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods.

Read the letter to Susan Mayne here.

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