TL;DR

Top officials from FDA, USDA-FSIS, CDC and AFDO used the 2026 Food Safety Summit Town Hall on May 14, 2026 to outline current regulatory priorities, including FDA resources on best practices and root cause analyses, USDA-FSIS action on Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, CDC reliance on state-reported data, and AFDO support for expanded information-sharing authority.

Town Hall brings four agencies to one stage

According to Food Safety Magazine's report titled "Top U.S. Food Safety Officials Discuss Regulatory Landscape at Food Safety Summit," leading officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Association of Food and Drug Officials took the stage at the 2026 Food Safety Summit Town Hall on Thursday, May 14.

The same report states that the Town Hall was convened to answer attendees' questions and provide insight into the current U.S. food safety regulatory landscape.

The Town Hall was moderated by Gillian Kelleher, CEO of Kelleher Consultants LLC and Chair of the Food Safety Summit Educational Advisory Board, according to that Food Safety Magazine report.

Panelists included Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety, according to the report.

Panelists also included Donald Prater, D.V.M., Principal Deputy Associate Commissioner for Food in FDA's Human Foods Program, according to the report.

Additional panelists were Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director of AFDO, and Gwen Biggerstaff, Sc.D., M.S.P.H., Deputy Division Director of CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases' Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, according to the report.

FDA leadership change noted at opening

Dr. Prater took the stage first and sent regards from Kyle Diamantas, J.D., FDA's new Acting Commissioner, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

Prater mentioned the leadership change that happened at the agency earlier this week, according to the same report.

Mr. Diamantas was FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods just before assuming the Acting Commissioner role due to the departure of the previous Commissioner, Marty Makary, M.D., according to the report.

FDA points industry to resources released Wednesday

Directing attendees to new resources released by the agency on Wednesday, Dr. Prater encouraged the use of root cause analyses and industry collaboration on the development of food safety best practices, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

A separate Food Safety Magazine report titled "FDA Encourages Industry to Develop Best Practices, Use Root Cause Analyses," published May 13, 2026, states that FDA's Human Foods Program released two new web resources on the development of industry best practices and the use of root cause analysis to understand food safety issues and prevent recurrence.

In a Food Safety Matters podcast interview recorded this week during the 2026 Food Safety Summit, Conrad Choiniere, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Microbiological Food Safety in FDA's Human Foods Program, discussed the newly released resources from the agency, according to that May 13 report.

The interview will be shared through all major podcast players and on the Food Safety Magazine website on May 19, according to the same report.

How FDA defines industry best practices

The webpage on Food Safety Best Practices for Human Foods describes how industry can work with FDA to create best practices, which are not FDA guidance documents, according to the May 13 Food Safety Magazine report.

Rather, best practices are guidelines, often specific to an individual food commodity or specific segment of an industry, developed by industry, academia, or other groups based on their experience and lessons learned, according to the same report.

They are intended to communicate meaningful food safety best practices that farms, facilities, or other food producers can follow in their day-to-day operations to enhance food safety, according to the same report.

In support of the development of best practices, FDA subject matter experts often participate in industry- or academia-led workgroups, share scientific data and insights, provide technical and regulatory expertise, and review resources developed by external stakeholders, according to the report.

FDA encourages stakeholders to connect with the agency when developing best practices for technical assistance, scientific information, and help with regulatory alignment, according to the report.

The webpage highlights collaborations on best practices and other documents, according to the report.

What root cause analyses are intended to do

Root cause analyses help regulators and industry identify the problems that caused a food safety incident and how those problems may have occurred, according to the May 13 Food Safety Magazine report.

The findings from a root cause analysis can help firms improve their own food safety interventions, inform industry-wide best practices, and help FDA develop guidance and enhanced oversight, according to the same report.

FDA's new Root Cause Analysis webpage describes the process for a root cause analysis, FDA's use of root cause analyses, and FDA's activities to strengthen root cause analysis processes, according to the report.

All of those uses can help prevent recurrence, according to the report's description of the resources.

USDA-FSIS names Salmonella and Listeria as priorities

Dr. Brashears remarked on the shared goal of ensuring food safety, which spans both sides of the political aisle, before delving into her main priorities as head of USDA-FSIS: Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

On reducing foodborne salmonellosis attributed to USDA-regulated products, Dr. Brashears said USDA-FSIS already has tools in its toolbox that the agency can use to take action on Salmonella, according to the report.

She mentioned pathogen performance standards as one of those tools, according to the report.

She also touched on the ongoing evaluation of existing quantification methods and the identification of the most highly pathogenic Salmonella strains present in food samples, according to the report.

"We want to find the most pathogenic strains so we can make a difference," said Dr. Brashears, as quoted in the report.

"We also want to find the products that cause the most problems," said Dr. Brashears, as quoted in the report.

Pork and beef programs signaled for late 2026 or early 2027

Beyond poultry, Dr. Brashears also teased Salmonella programs for pork and beef products, rolling out late this year or in early 2027, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

That timeline places potential rollout in late 2026 or in early 2027, according to the same report.

Listeria data collection follows 2024 outbreak

L. monocytogenes was another priority mentioned by Dr. Brashears, according to the Town Hall report.

She described the data collection efforts initiated at the agency following the Boar's Head listeriosis outbreak of 2024 and subsequent changes to the Listeria Rule, according to the report.

She also alluded to a new program to enhance Listeria sampling and testing, rolling out in the next few months, according to the report.

CDC describes state-federal monitoring system

Dr. Biggerstaff described the state-federal collaboration that enables foodborne illness outbreak response and pathogen monitoring and surveillance, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

She explained that states are on the front lines, while CDC collects and connects pathogen monitoring and illness data, according to the report.

Much of what CDC is able to accomplish is built on voluntarily reported data from state, local, tribal, and territorial partners, Dr. Biggerstaff emphasized, according to the report.

Dr. Biggerstaff also mentioned CDC's capacity-building efforts at state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments and described the current resource constraints, according to the report.

"CDC is only able to provide about 40 percent of what is requested," she stated, as quoted in the report.

However, she explained that these resource constraints are also driving data modernization efforts to lower barriers to state, local, tribal, and territorial participation in national data reporting systems, according to the report.

AFDO addresses retail oversight, inspections and information sharing

Mr. Mandernach described the role state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies play in food safety regulatory oversight and enforcement, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

He applauded the Retail Foods Program at FDA, saying, "It's the best functioning retail team many of us have seen in our careers," according to the report.

That function was enabled by the Human Foods Program reorganization bringing the agency's food policy and field programs under one umbrella, according to the report.

BRIDGE Project moves inspections to states

Mr. Mandernach also highlighted the importance of FDA's BRIDGE Project, which is transitioning most domestic manufacturing food inspections to states, according to the Town Hall report.

He described the ways in which state inspections are equivalent to those directly conducted by FDA, according to the report.

Bill would expand outbreak information sharing

Additionally, Mr. Mandernach advocated for expanded federal-state information-sharing authorities before and during foodborne illness outbreaks to improve detection and response, according to the report.

He stated AFDO's support for an active bill, the Federal and State Food Safety Information Sharing Act, which was discussed during a Congressional hearing in April, according to the report.

"Working together with the full range of stakeholders is how we will really bend the foodborne illness curve," concluded Mr. Mandernach, as quoted in the report.

AI compared to whole genome sequencing

In response to an attendee question, Dr. Prater discussed the importance of harnessing artificial intelligence for food safety, calling it "as much of a game-changer" as whole genome sequencing, according to Food Safety Magazine's Town Hall report.

"Better food safety means better data and better analytics," he said, as quoted in the report.

He described how quantitative analytical techniques are helping FDA make sense of enormous quantities of data, according to the report.

Sources referenced