Food issues deserve hearing when senators question FDA commissioner nominee Scott Gottlieb

Every American consumer will be denied access to information about how much added sugar they are consuming if the food industry gets its way with the Trump Administration and delays the revised Nutrition Facts label, which is set to become mandatory for big companies in July 2018 and for the remaining 95 percent of companies in July 2019. 

Nor will consumers know how many calories are in the foods they buy when eating out if the Trump Administration doesn’t come out against supermarket, convenience store, and pizza industry attempts to sabotage menu labeling. 

Every consumer is put at risk by the current FDA practice of allowing companies essentially to decide for themselves what chemicals are safe to put into our foods.

Those are just a few of the issues the senators on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions should ask Scott Gottlieb, M.D., about during his confirmation hearing.  While most of the public discussion of Dr. Gottlieb has focused on the FDA’s oversight of drugs, it is, after all, the Food and Drug Administration.